: HI folks I am new to this, I was looking at fabriks for my kayak (sea going).
: I have seen some data on ordinary fiberglass, and the abrasion resistance
: does nt seem to good. The data on the above mentioned fabrics is better,
: but I have no idea how easy it will be to work with them (ease of wetting
: out,bubbling etc) any one have any experience with these.

: I would welcome your inbut

I use a 1" wide 60" long (cloth width) strip of polypropylene cloth on the keel stem edges,
starting at the waterline, on all my boats. Polypropylene cloth wets out well and is translucent.

The keel stem edges will get a lot of abrasion. I would not put this cloth anywhere else since it will
add a lot of weight when used in large quantities.

Dynel and Xynole are opaque when wet-out.

Underwater Stem Protection
The edges of the fore and aft stems and underwater edges along the keel of your boat can sustain damage from abrasion fairly quickly if not protected.
Fiberglass cloth has tremendous impact strength, but it is not very good at abrasion protection. Use a specialty cloth designed for abrasion resistance to protect these edges. I use polypropylene cloth from Defender Industries.

This strip of protective cloth need only be 1” wide. Sand with 80 grit paper along the keel bow and stern where you will be applying the abrasion strip. Use 2” masking tape to mask off an area along the keel at the stems from just above the waterline, back under the hull as far as your cloth length will allow.
Apply masking tape 1/2” on either side of the keel line. Apply tape crossing the keel strips at the ends to mask off this area. See photo top.
Cut a strip of the abrasion cloth 3” wide and full length, usually 60” long.
Tape and stretch this cloth to the keel straddling the masked area.

Wet out the cloth and the cloth edges extending onto the masking tape.
Press waxed paper and/or clear kitchen plastic wrap onto the wet resin. This will leave a smooth surface when removed.
When the resin has set to a leather hard stage, start peeling back the masking tape and cut the excess cloth on the edge of the inner cloth tape edge.
Lift and cut pulling the cloth up into the knife edge reducing the chance of damaging the underlaying glass.
Use a new blade in a utility knife to cut the leather hard resin and cloth. Press just hard enough to cut through the soft resin.
The underlying glass is hard enough to prevent hull damage unless you press into it really hard.
Continue to peel back the tape & cloth and cut a neat edge to the abrasion strip.
Let the abrasion strip harden and then sand the sharp edges smooth.

All the best,
Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.laughingloon.com