Charlie's okay, Hoz. He's just wondering like the rest of us here about how you're moving forward with this plan for a Kevlar canoe build. Kevlar can be wonderful stuff when used in the right way. Pretty much all the rest of the time it's an enormous hassle unless you're working in a production environment that is setup for the material with the right tools, personnel and experience.

I'm of the opinion that most canoes do not benefit from the inclusion of a Kevlar layup in their construction. If you're planning a very serious mashing session with this boat and it has to hold up for an expedition of that kind of crunching, then perhaps it could be the right stuff for you.

Personally, I'd go for an S-Glass and carbon schedule that had expedition weight layup written into the high stress areas. The overall difference in weight saved for an expedition layup is negligible and the durability and repairability are much, much higher.

I think the skepticism comes out whenever someone wants to take a mold from an existing boat of theirs to crank out a copy in a difficult exotic material. As I said in an earlier post, I strongly recommend doing this effort first on a very small and manageable scale. There's tons to know before you start trying to wet-out many yards of spendy Kevlar fabric while the potlife of your resin is ticking away. That's where the small part thing comes in. You learn most of the idiot lessons on small, less expensive screw-ups before the big tool is sitting in front of you.

I'd seriously look into nearby locations that might be doing layups in Kevlar and offer to work as an apprentice so you could get the feel of the particular weirdness of the material.

Of course, it'll be your boat and you can do whatever you please. I think there are a lot of folks here who are interested in following a boatbuilding adventure as you have described; myself included. If you do move forward with this enterprise, please do let us know how things are going for you and ask any and all questions with which you need help.

Chris