: The eventual possibility of water induced
: delamination is also a concern here.

Delamination on a paddle is a trivial matter IF it should ever occur.

You are talking about an easy afternoon job of sanding off the old material and putting on a new sheathing of glass cloth and resin. If there is any significant delamination the old stuff will be even easier to remove.

If there is a leak in a boat, you get water inside the hull. If there is a leak in a paddle you get what? Water on both sides of the blade? Gee, you have that without a leak

Liquid water doesn't penetrate polyester resin. The microscopic tubes and pinholes created by the evaporation of the solvents used in the making of the resin are too tiny for a water molecule to penetrate. Only molecules of water vapor are small enough to get through, and it takes a good long time under normal weather conditions. Unless you paddle inside a pressure cooker you should expect about a 10 to 20 year service life from your fiberglass job.

Oh, and since you now realize that this is polyester, you can forget about needing to varnish it. Polyester is far more resistant to UV light, so it doesn't really need the varnish.

Start paddling, stop worrying.

PGJ