Hi Paul,
Thanks for the response.

: Are you planing to race this? If so, check with the organization which
: sponsors or organizes the races, and see if they permit hulls which are
: coated with a pperformance-enhancing material.

The class this boat will race in allows coatings and any materials, so I can use graphite, teflon or anything like this. K1 Olympic class prohibits the use of this, so when I build one of those I'll just varnish it.

: Adding graphite doesn't do a thing to protect against punctures from 90 degrees

Agree. Most things I've hit so far are snags or logs just under the surface - they tend to be glancing blows along the hull so the idea is the graphite will provide scratch resistance and also allow the boat to ride over them easier.

: Varnish alone would not be as strong of a 'glue' for holding the graphite.

Fair enough. Epoxy would be stronger I guess. So I'll evaluate further the weight added compared to protection gained.

Thanks,
Darren