: Hi, new to the forum, although I've been snooping for a few months.
: About to start my first boat, Rob Mack's Fire Star, and had some
: questions about fiberglass selection. I'm leaning towards
: s-glass, 6oz for the hull and 4 oz for the deck, with another
: strip of 4oz on the outside hull for abrasion resistance. As
: I've never worked with fiberglass should I just stick to the
: standard 6oz E-glass for the first boat? Is S-glass inherently
: harder to achieve a transparent wetout? If I was to choose
: S-glass, looking at the Sweet Composites site they have a plain
: weave (6533) and 8-harness satin weave (6580) - both 6oz. Are
: the two weave types equal in terms of strength? I understand a
: tighter weave is more challenging to work with to get a clear
: finish. In other words I'm looking for advice on balancing my
: lack of fiberglass experience with what I should look to achieve
: with this first boat. Thanks to all for this great resource.

: Mark

I'm kind of surprised that neither Rob nor Sam mentioned this, but there's no real reason for the additional strengths of S glass vs. E glass with these boats. 4 ounce E glass works fine.

Bill H.