SNIP

: I've been really abusing my CF GPs too, with all kinds of banging and prying
: off the kayak rolling, high leverage surfing, and even banging on rocks. I
: occasionally have a nightmare about it breaking, but nothing yet, and
: that's only at 19oz.

SNIP

Duane

Having looked over the weights from what You are getting with a wet lay-up and what vacuum bagging weights I have. It looks like you are already getting close to a optimal weight / fabric lay-up

not sure that there would be significant gains for you to go to vacuum.

properly done, there is very little extra resin to be gleaned off with vacuum.

the vacuuum squishes the layers together and makes a more compact denser matrix.

there is only a real gain if you are doing multiple layers and using extra resin doing it.

I layed up a test paddle and added a single layer of 7.2 oz 2 inch sheathing and did one blade with vacuum and one as a wet lay-up when I got done the weight / half paddle was 2 tenths of an oz differant....the knap looked nicer on the vacuumed blade, but upon giving both blade halves a coat of epoxy....it was still only 2 tenths of an oz differant.

at 19 oz for a 84 inch long paddle using 4 layers of 5.7 oz....Your already doing good.

However Vacuum is fun to play with....just thought that You migh be curious about any differance before You started spending money
Best Wishes
Roy