: 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

Btw, forgot to mention, I'm not envious of trying to wrap the sides in CF and keeping the weave perfectly straight while glassing, pain in the butt.

Bill H.