Ken, I'm thrilled you got the kit and are ready to get to work. I certainly know the feeling. A few words of advice: read the manual at least three times so you have a clear picture in your mind of the processes you will go through. If there is anything you don't understand then a note to us here at the GBBS will get you answers you need to make no mistakes. Sand the panels with great care, any sanding across the grain will make a mess of the final finish. When you join the panels, take care to weight them down using pieces of wood on either side of the joint and a brick. Use pieces of wood to keep the panels level while the glue is setting, this ensures that the joints will be straight and flat. A dremmel works very effectively and quickly in removing excess epoxy when smoothing the joints after joining them. Tie the panels with the copper wire carefully so as not to break through the wood (Guilty here!) and use the jig Donnie recommends you build to keep the holes nicely lined up, it gives a more appealing final appearance if they all line up. Use equal pressure on all copper ties so that the panels are all equally spaced as you build the hull. Any ties that are tighter than the others will show as indentations and affect the overall look of the lines. When you glue the tied hull panels, make sure the keel is straight. You can do this by twisting and bending the tied hull as it sits on two horses. Sight along the keel and make sure its damned straight coz if it isn't the yak won't track straight when you start paddling. The panels are engineered perfectly so any issues you have with a crooked hull will be because your own errors. When you check the keel, make sure there is no depression in the center of the hull under the cockpit. A depression here will cause drag through suction when you are paddling. Donnie clearly notes this possible defect in construction in the manual and how to avoid it. I'm just emphasizing it here for your own sake. There is plenty of advice here at the GBBS regarding using Raka Epoxy so I'll leave it to the others to comment on how to use it effectively. Remember this though: when epoxy cures it leaves a waxy finish (called blush) that absolutely must be washed off before another coat of epoxy can be applied. I heard a story from Donnie just today about someone who didn't wash off the blush and applied another coat of epoxy. The blush prevented the new coat from setting so he had to painstakingly scrape it off, wash it down and reapply the new coat. You don't want to get into a problem like this so always remember to wash off the blush. Take care to sand the epoxy so you have a very smooth final coat. That means fill all little scratches and dents with epoxy until everything is totally smooth. Your final look depends on this. It takes time to sand properly so don't rush it: it's worth the time to do it right the first time. NEVER sand into the fibreglass weave until you can see the cross-hatch pattern of the glass. If you do this you are damaging and weakening the glass. The glass is where the structural integrity of the yak originates. You don't want to mess with that. Make sure there are no air bubbles in any seams you tape. Air bubbles mean weak joints. You might consider adding the foam shocks under the buldheads. I did that to my second Lightning 17 and found that they help avoid and minimize hull damage from hitting rocks (I have a problem with that one). Another possible consideration is to line the cockpit with Kevlar to strengthen the hull in case of hard impact. I did that to mine, hit a rock somewhere and it broke through the hull panels but not the Kevlar. In fact, the yak didn't even leak. I was able to patch the yak simply by filling the hole with epoxy, sanding it, graphiting it then scratching my head trying to figure out how the hole got there in the first place. You have to understand me to know how I manage these things: I have a history that keep people guessing what I'll try next. Hehe! If you use Kevlar, do not line the cockpit with fibreglass, the Kevlar replaces it. The deck work on the hull is pretty well straightforward. Having the deck fit perfectly depends on getting the hull right. If you get it right, the deck fits perfectly. If you're like me, you might have to trim the edges of the bow and stern a little to get them to fit right. If you want to color the yak, you have many choices. You can dye the panels before you glue them together, do inlays using other wood types for color variation or do as I did and use Tremclad Rust Paint. I believe that one of these choices is a must for a complete properly done yak.

Hey, I hope you can use some of the few words I've added here. I hope your excitement for building and paddling never abates. Happy building!

Robert N Pruden