The CF on the hull is mostly for looks. The guy has a serious fetish for carbon fiber. Whatever the customer wants, right? I could have ordered lighter-weight CF cloth but he didn't feel like spending the extra money for the lighter cloth. It's a bit funny how the lighter cloth is 2-3X the price of "regular" 5.7 oz. It the sides are less than 6" tall so it's not really a lot of fabric and shouldn't add too much weight (less than a pound).

I wouldn't have chosen sapele either. It's a beautiful wood but it sure is a lot denser than cedar! He wanted a certain look and dyeing cedar was out. Getting it to bend to some of the compound curves should be fun. My lumber yard in VT had a good-size pile of sapele. I rooted through it and tried to find the lightest boards. The higher strength of the wood allows me to use thin it down and use less glass. Both should help offset the weight gain.

It's a pretty low volume boat. With judicial use of epoxy, 3oz tight weave S-glass, vacuum bagging certain CF parts (deck fittings, seat and recesses) and thinning down the sapele to around 5/32" before sanding, I'm aiming for a weight around 36 pounds. It won't be the lightest boat I ever built but should weigh less than my old Guillemot at 42 pounds. It'll be a looker.

=D

: Interesting build Dan, I too find it a bit odd to be using CF over
: the ply and then using sapele which isn't the lightest. But
: should be pretty regardless :)