I used my Guillemot 18.

It saw a lot of abuse between the two 3-day weekends.

What I found out:

5.5 oz (6 oz.) glass over 1/4" strips seems to be strong enough. No hairline cracking, no crazing, no white spots from other boats banging into it. Give up on trying to keep your varnish scratch-free, though. (Not that I'm one who has ever been terribly worried about it.

I whacked my stern HARD into a rock that was forming an eddy on ebbing 7-knot Deception Pass doing an eddy peelout. I ground a bunch of glass off my sheerline, but impact damage seemed to be non-existent.

I lost a deckline fitting playing ultimate frisbee polo. I have the Grant Goltz built veneer deckline fittings, and the other boat's keel came right up on my foredeck and its keel knocked the fitting clean off. The bow then punched me in the chest. An elegant, mild game it is not. The gal who hit me felt pretty bad about it, but I paddled directly into her course to prevent her from getting the 'bee! (She didn't get the bee!). PFD was good padding, too--no blood, no foul.

Neoprene sprayskirt got a slight tear where I was pulling other boats over my coaming to do assisted T-rescues. A little Aquaseal and good as new.

Shawn

: Since you mentioned proper deck rigging, etc. , what kayak did you use for
: the testing? And did it see much abuse in the full-contact ultimate
: frisbee polo and other testing?

: Dean