: Any opinions -- that was a joke, right? You sound like a trouble
: maker. :) Also, you say 'coastal saltwater', but that really
: doesn't say much; for instance, Jay Babina paddles Outer Islands
.

Alabama marsh /oyster shells and sugar white sand beach.

I did chicken out just now. I put a full layer of 6oz inside the hull. I figured i better while I could still get to it. Can always add more to the outside of the hull someday.
But I only used the one gallon of epoxy and 1/2 gal. of hardener to glass the whole boat....still have 1 1/2 gallons left, somehow i feel like I'm ahead of where I usually am.

It seemed to me that by laying 4 oz glass down first...the 6 oz does'nt seem to require as much epoxy to wet out.

: in coastal saltwater and so do I, but he seal launches and
: lands, storm-tossed, on boulders and crags, whereas I mush along
: in mud and sand. When he hears me talk about my layups, you can
: almost feel the poor man cringe. But whatever, on to the
: opinions!

: I'm starting to like 4 oz plain weave s-glass a lot. My latest, a
: second Outer Island, features 4 oz s-glass inside and out with a
: football doubler inside and out, and 4 oz s-glass inside the
: deck with 3.25 oz satin weave e-glass outside. On my Merlin
: canoe I did 4 oz e-glass inside and out, plus a doubler of 6 oz
: e-glass inside and out of the football because of the large,
: relatively flat area. It turned out perfect; the boat weighs 33
: lbs and is plenty stiff and strong enough to stand in, which
: I've been doing routinely going on three years now. 4 oz e-glass
: can seem a little light, therefore I decided to go with 4 oz
: s-glass and feel more confident.

: In any case, my motto is: "If it breaks, I'll fix it and make
: it stronger", and I almost never have to fix stuff because
: I built it too light.

: The trick to getting light weight boats is watching each and every
: gram of weight that goes into it, and trying to dream up a way
: to live without it. Doing a little shade tree engineering to
: determine your layup instead of just using the standard
: one-size-fits-all 6 oz inside and out is a great way to go. It
: can require a little courage and daring sometimes, but hey,
: that's part of the fun, right?