: Carl,

: Btw, just for the test I'd just wrap it in plastic and try it without coating
: the wood, it'll dry fine afterwards then you can coat it. Leaving it bare
: to me is a mistake, course I'm also a thousand miles from salt water, wood
: rots quicker in fresh water.

: Bill H.

Thanks to all for responding - I'm going to coat the cedar with varnish as per Bill's recommendation. I didn't say so in my question, but the stringers are in a catamaran kayak that will have sealed hulls, except for drain plugs, of course. If (ok, when) water does get into the bilge, I think the wood will just soak it up as drying inside the hulls will be severely inhibited. My SC-1 is treated with Danish oil, and it's fine after a year, but it gets plenty of opportunity to dry out between uses. Untreated cedar is not really an option in this case.

So I'm going to err on the side of caution and use varnish. I expect this boat to take a real beating, as it will be a test bed for a number of ideas I want to try, and will most likely be used for student design projects here at Maritime College. Let me tell you, the cadets really beat up the boats, as you can imagine.

Bill, I haven't made it to the boathouse for a couple of days, so a plastic wrap test is not imminent - maybe next weekend. How close are you to testing your beast? Are you going to do a plastic test, or go straight to a final skin? Maybe we can do a stereo launch, albeit a thousand miles apart.

Cheers, Carl