Relaunched 'the raisin' with new polyester + Zar skin yesterday at Belews Lake.

Bad thing is that the skin wrinkled AGAIN after I took so many pains to sew the polyester on as tightly as possible (gives new meaning to "drum tight" as it was starting to distort the frame). After the second coat of Zar, it wrinkled up, just like last time (although I didn't use Zar for the first skin). I think the problem is that I have been recoating it too soon, although I've followed the directions on the can in both cases. The deck did tighten up after a couple of days, but the hull has not. I'll give it a few weeks to see if things improve before I reskin it for a third time..... At least the satin poly helps hide the wrinkles a bit.

As far as paddling goes, it performed well on the lake. Its a damp ride when the chop is 10-12" or more. Its quick, quicker than I have the strength to paddle it. The only handling issue is when the chop is quartering from behind, the bow tends to get pushed around easily. I've not paddled other kayaks enough in chop to know if this is par for the course or not, but it was a bit annoying since I was tired and trying to get back to the parking lot. Overall I'm happy with it, now if I could only get a handle on the d@$# skin!