Yo David

I built my guillemot S&G recently. I fibreglassed the inside hull from bow to stern to about 1" above the chine on the inside. Deck was just taped and two coats of epoxy on the inside.

I gave no consideration to saving weight when I built my kayak. I concede my guillemot feels relatively heavy - no official weigh in yet. However it is way lighter than a plastic fantastic. The weather conditions around Wellington are notoriously strong winds and moderate seas so for me strength rather than weight was my underlying building philosophy.

I am also reassured that it is going to be pretty strong. Not Titanic strong, but pretty strong. This built in feature was kind of reassuring the other night when I was punching through 1m + surf waves and dropping off the back.

Another reason I fibreglassed the inside bottom was because I figured that water and sand would most likely collect there and the extra fibreglass should make my kayak more durable. Also, the bottom is where I thought I would be scritching up as I slid paddles and gear in and out of the boat. Additionally by only putting 1 weave filling coat on the bottom cloth, I got a little non-skid effect which I thought might be usefull - (but probably isn't because I don't actually stand up in the kayak). Final bonus for me was that I got to practice my cloth wetting out techniques (which I hadn't done a lot of before hand) which stood me in good stead for making a satisfactory job on the outside sheathing.

Building your own kayak gives you choices to do it your way, that is just one of the many advantages of building your own kayak. Do what you feel is right.

Cheers Pete