Okay folks, I know there has been some bad feedback on the Raka 5oz, but curiosity got the best of me, so I'm going to try it with West System. I don't deny the benefit of weight savings, but if I were going to go lightweight, first I would lose a few pounds around the belly before I tried to shave ounces off the boat!

Actually it's just plain ol' curiosity. I decided to do a "skim coat" or pre coat, or whatever you call it prior to applying the cloth. That was mainly to smooth the thing out... kinda like primer on a street rod. It only took four pumps of epoxy to do the whole deck of my 19' Atlantic. I can see how it saved a lot of weight. When I went to order the 'glass cloth, there was that darned 5 oz that I had heard so much about. Mostly it seems I heard that it's darned hard to wet out. Well, that became a challenge for me. I'm going to be the one to try it out and will report on what I find. Wish me luck, and give me pointers if you have tried it. Also there was a slight weight issue since I plan to do some extra layers for durability, as this will take a lot of beach landings and near misses (i.e. "I nearly missed it... but I hit it") with rocks.

By the way, I used Western Red Cedar and Pine on my deck, and I must say I'm a little disappointed with the pine. It went way darker than expected. I was hoping it would show a little patina, but it darkened enough that the contrast I was looking for wasn't as dramatic as expected. Oh well, what can ya' do. Actually it gave it a nice "aged" look. I figure people will think it's an old boat granddad made, and it's actually built in honor of my grandfather, who built wooden boats in the Hacker Craft style with mahogany caulked decks. I used wrc to mimmick the mahogany, and pine to mimmick the caulk lines. It's no new idea, but it's what I wanted.

Her name will be "Pyxis," Which is the constellation that represents the compass needle of the "Argo." I figured it was fitting for a big long skinny pointy kayak that looks kinda like a compass needle. the plan was to put a compass rose inlayed in the deck. Yeah, right... you know how plans change as reality draws nearer. I will post pics just as soon as I get off my tail and get one of those accounts and all that good stuff.

Happy Paddling,

Malcolm