: Well did something stupid and broke my yak. Well not too bad. I have crushed
: about 6 inches of my bow on the lower edge. It was just deep enough to go
: through the wood but not the inner layer of glass. I am planning to plane
: down through the damage and build back up using walnut. Here is my
: dilemma. I have RAKA no blush epoxy this takes about 12 hrs to set well. I
: want to build up almost 2 inches of walnut. At 1/8 inch thick this will
: take at least 8 days if I use the RAKA epoxy. If I use 5 min. epoxy the
: laminating will take less than one day. Then there is option 3 witch is
: buying epoxy just for the laminating.

: Now having said that why would I not want to use the 5 min. epoxy?

: Sage.

: P.S. My mother-in-law will be staying with me for 3 weeks. I would like to
: get as much paddling time as possible during this time.

Sage,

When I built my S&G Lightening 17 (similar to a Merganser 17) I did a healthy end pour in the bow and stern. I made sure the end pour was at least an inch thick at the sheer joint and let it run down to the bottom of the keel and past for at least 12 inches. I ended up with an end pour that was an inch wide with solid epoxy from the deck to the keel and let it taper off to nothing at the point from a foot from the bow/stern. As the pour tapered off it got wider according to the shape of the keel panels. The first foot or so of the stern/bow isn't flexible so filling it all in with epoxy did nothing to reduce hull flexibilty. I had to do a series of small pours over a day for each end. I poured a new batch once the last batch thickened enough so it wouldn't run. I also added some coarsely chopped glass to add a little more strength to the end pours. I did this because I know I am a little rough with my kayak in or out of the water. I managed to grind my stern down to wood this summer and ended up cracking the seam. In haste, I found that I had neglected to glass the stern during construction coz I was in too much of a hurry to get out and paddle. The end pour I had done kept water out of the kayak and held everything together very nicely. All I had to do for a repair was to fill the crack with thickened epoxy and add a few layers of glass to protect it. I didn't have to rebuild edge coz not enough wood was missing to warrant the delay to the paddling season. I also happen to know that a good end pour holds up well when your bow is being ground up by class 6 rapids. I had a little spill back in June that should have split my bow apart but it held. It would seem to me that a good end pour can either save you from a lot of misery (bailing) or even potentially save your life by preventing leakage during an emergency (rocky surf). Take good care to do it right so you can avoid headaches later on. I am sure the people here will back me like the on this one.

Robert N Pruden