I didnt care for the latex painting mostly. And the canvas is OK, but I think I would consider using a nylon instead. I heard that there is less coats to seal the nylon. I put alot of paint on the canvas in order to get the finish I wanted. It seemed to me that I had to put on about 5 coats of latex before the canvas threads started to disapear. Maybe it was the method of painting I used, why I didnt get the finish I wanted.. but the skin itself is not as smooth as I would have preferred. And I was worried I was just adding more and more weight as I layed on another coat of paint to the skin. All in all, it came out under 20lbs, so that is fine.
The paint was also time consuming. Watching paint dry is boring! LOL. I waited overnight to put each coat on, and at that stage of the boat, I just wanted to hurry up and get it done!!! LOL.
I also worried about my color choice after the paint was applied. I figured the white would show an ugly water film left after paddling.
However, after our first launch, I was pleasently surprised when we pulled the kayak out of the water, and it wasnt mucky. I thought that the skin would have an ugly waterline sticking to it. But it didnt. The latex seemed to shed the water muck off just fine. When we loaded the boat back onto the car, it looked just as nice as when we launched it. So I was wrong. The 'not-so-smooth' latex finish did fine.

As far as the matching... It took some doing to make that choice. Lilly truly wanted a pink kayak...LOL... I think I have heard that from some of the other boat builders here..LOL... But a after long talks about how cool it would be that we have "matching kayaks", she finally agreed. She really likes it! Thank goodness!!!

As far as how long the canvas will last... I didnt care about that since I believe she will outgrow the kayak before it becomes a problem.
OH, and one other thing.... I spent all day tediously stitching beautiful tiny little stitches in a perfectly straight row, only to cover them up with paint...they are invisible, and the seam itself is almost gone. Next time, I believe I will NOT get so tedious with my stitches..LOL. But that was the perfectionist in me coming out. LOL.
I still have the cockpit coaming to touch up with paint... I got a bit sloppy with the yellow.
The black stripe is also just painted on. In the pics its hard to tell if its a rub strip or just paint.

Thanks for the compliments.
Smiles,
Heather

: Very Nice Job Heather, I love the color matching that you did.
: Why did you not like the skinning method you used?

: Don