> Just bought a Pygmy Actic Tern and am very excited to build it but I had
> read in Chris's book that you can lighten up the boat 5 lbs by just taping
> the seams and not putting fiberglass over the hole boat. Will this work?
> Will the boat we much weaker structurally? What does all that fiberglass
> do anyway?

Perhaps I just don't have enough experience with kayaks to judge the difference but I just don't get this focus on building a boat that is a few pounds lighter. Compare to a polyethelene, fiberglass, and even kevlar layup these woodend kayaks are *really* light. As far as I can tell the major advantage in the lighter weight is the ease in loading and unloading the boat on the top of a vehicle, and considering that is generally only done twice during a days outing I just don't see where saving a pound or two is that much of an advantage especially when structural integrity might be compromise. I'm certainly no Adonis but even my 56lb. VCP Skerray in fiberglass doesn't pose any trouble for me when unloading and loading or carrying it for a short distance.