I've taken to adding a layer of glass to the cockpit floors of my older S&G kayaks BEACUSE I have seen evidence of water intrusion through the interior epoxy and into the wood layer.

My speculation is that in normal use, riding over the ocassional rock, the wooden bottom flexes. It flexes more across the widest spans, such as in the cockpit area. I measured the span in my Cape Charles. It's 10 inches across each bottom panel. The direction of flex is across the grain, the way that plywood is most bendy. The wood doesn't exhibit any sort of failure, but the part of the composite sandwich that is under the greatest tension, the interior epoxy, does. It cracks and water gets into the wood. My answer is to add my best material in terms of tensile strength to reinforce the epoxy waterproofing layer on the inside.

Another part of the equation is that the cockpit is the interior part of the boat most likely to get wet and stay wet, so any break in the epoxy layer there invites water penetration.

Mike Scarborough
Friendship Kayak