Yo

Well done. I am sure if it is glassed both sides your Goldeneye kayak should be light AND strong.

I have learn't much since my original email. Yep, 4mm is a touch thicker than 1/8" ply which we would call 3 mm. I used 4mm for my kayak. 6 mm ply is a touch thinner than 1/4" - (off topic) I learn't that lesson at my cost one day recently when I went diving under the hull of a ship with a 1/4" allen key to undo a 6 mm allen key bolt. The 1/4" measured close enough to 6mm with a plastic ruler and even a pair of plastic callipers, but the 1/4" allen key was always going to be too big to fit. Result = long swim back to the stern of the ship and get a name brand 6 mm allen key (and no the ship didn't sink when I took the bolt out).

Off topic x 2. Being a complete punk and lout I still haven't gotten round to building my second s&g guillemot. Instead, I got distracted and am building another 8' racing hydroplane out of ply and bits of western red cedar. The cheek of it never stops because I am using building techniques and skills learned from this board. Thanks guys.

However, this hydroplane is going to be used by a visiting englishman who is going to race in our annual 88 mile (two day) race down the Waikato River NZ using british seagull motors. I wanted to build light as possible using 4 mm ply and sheathing. He wanted 6 mm ply and epoxy only. Since he was going to be using it, I went 6 mm and got some prime pieces of gaboon ply 6mm. After all the angst, the 6mm ply doesn't seem that much heavier than the 4mm, but certainly is a bit stiffer. So going heavier wasn't such a big deal after all and I can reassure myself that this little baby will be like a pocket battleship and maybe can take a few knocks that it might not otherwise have been able to??

Moral of the story half a dozen of one = 6 of another/horses for courses.

Enough rambling.

Cheers and happy safe paddling

Pete