Dave,
I picked up the final (I hope) supplies from my local fibreglass supplier today and was discussing the need to varnish the kayak for UV protection and he says that even in our intense summers here in Australia it would take 10-12 years for any degradation to occur without varnish. His advice was to add M.E.K. (epoxy thinners) to the epoxy and spray it on as a final coat. The M.E.K. will evaporate after a few minutes on application and will apparently give a very hard. glossy and clear finish, with no yellowing that occurs with varnishing. I would be very interested to know what the forum thinks of this, or if anyone has tried this approach. I am not sure if I would be keeping the kayak for that long, it's more likely that I will have built another one at least in that time. I hope to launch in about two weeks and will post pictures on a new website as the old one has died when I filled up my space.

Geoff