To All,

Thanks for the responses.

I have a 2'X 2' test panel made up and waiting for the glass. I have been watching the site and have seen the mess of postings on the Raka 5oz. I am some what apprehensive, but I've never been one to do things the easy way. Besides, I am going for the lightest practical weight I can get. Actually hoping for 75# or less. We aren't getting any younger and as you know a 21' double is a lot of boat. I will test and trial until I get it right.

I expect I will fret about the finish right up till the last minute then make my decision to "sand or not to sand"...my soul keeps saying no no no...that wood feels sooo goooood right now. I'm not too worried about the steel wool fiber, I'm pretty anal about that stuff.

I will be trying to get some pic's up soon. I'm in the middle of building some web pages. All my pictures are 5+meg tiffs, so I need to do some converting.

At this point in the game, I am at 223 hours in build including fabrication of a 32' one pass B&C dual router table and 6:1 scarfing fixtures and gluing jigs for strip splicing. I said I am anal. So far no staples. Plenty of other goofs and frustrations. One of the worst being color matching with Durhams. I have decided I like sanding flour in carbosil thickened epoxy.

I'm having a ball.

Thanks for the forum and all the input from everywhere.

Russ