: Half gallon then, that should about do it.

: I figure a 12oz ballistic nylon goop or varnish skin weighs
: somewhere around 8 pounds, based on weighing frame before and
: after skinning over several kayaks. Would you venture a guess to
: what your epoxy skin, say with a single layer of 6 oz glass
: might weigh?

: I am looking to this method for several reasons:
: • It seems to promise greater longevity than nylon/varnish or
: goop.
: • Less issue with sagging/wrinkling.
: • Easier incorporation of bulkheads/hatches.
: • Stiffer, possibly less skin deflection, possibly more efficient
: hull realized, somewhere between skin boat and wood-core FG?
: • Better finish possibilities, neater appearance with lack of my
: trademark Frankenstein stitch up the deck
: • Durability... sounds promising, I still have a hard time
: getting my head around this thin a layup being very puncture or
: tear resistant though. Is this a kayak I can bash over submerged
: logs with, or do I need to treat it gently? Can I pound over
: waves and get mixed up in the surf with this skin?

: One cause of concern, in reading around about this over the
: weekend, I've seen plenty of references to dacron being used as
: a cheap peel-ply because *epoxy doesn't stick to it*??? Surely
: they are meaning something besides the aircraft dacron you're
: using in this skin?

: So, I read the Duckworks Epoxy/Dacron/Xynole Matrix article again.
: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/07/howto/skin/index.htm Is this
: essentially the same basic process you are using?

: Does the dacron heat shrunk on the frame make a solid enough
: surface to allow squeegeeing excess epoxy out of the glass
: layer? This is just like glassing a hard shell kayak, right? You
: mentioned in one post that the lightest dacron was like
: "working on the surface of a balloon". Is the heavier
: dacron then have give more like a kayak skinned tight with nylon
: or something? To what can I relate what I might expect? Because
: the dacron is more or less sealed with a thin coat of epoxy
: before the glass is applied, I imagine that during the wet out
: stage of the glass, you don't really have to worry about the
: dacron either sucking resin and starving the glass, or pushing
: resin through both layers to create a heavy build up on the
: inside of the kayak? Mostly have to worry about not floating the
: glass? I imagine the thicker the epoxy layer, the more prone to
: cracking it might be?

: Thanks for your help, Bill and Dan. I've got the building itch
: something fierce, it's all I can do to stay at my desk right
: now.

Lots of questions, I'm cooling from working outside, I'll see if I can answer a few:

Overall weight is comparable to a nylon skin depending obviously upon how much resin you use, more resin more weight.

Skin should be permanant, so no issue on it's life span.

No sagging at all, not an issue.

Bulkheads and hatches are only very slightly easier, the skin still deflects like any other SOF so bulkheads have to be flexible, just easier to epoxy the material for the bulkhead to the skin.

Skin deflection is very similiar to a tight skin of any other material for flexiblity, but it stays that way and doesn't deflect more over time.

Needs UV protection so has to be either varnished or painted, still fairly easy to get a nice finish.

With 6 ounce it's a very tough skin, still it can be punctured with very sharp objects when the boat is moving fast, it's still a SOF. No worries at all in waves, won't make any difference at all.

Dacron, usually treated, is used as a peel ply, but that means that the Dacron can be peeled away from the skin. Since the Dacron is attached to the frame and the fiberglass covers it, there is no peeling possible, otherwise it stays stuck very well. I pre-coat the Dacron with resin working it into the weave of the fabric then after it's set I lay the fiberglass over it. The epoxy sticks to itself very well, and since the resin was worked into the skin it's very well stuck.

Single ply glass is very flexible used with epoxy, no cracking at all, none. Fiberglass is normally not used this way so you don't see just how flexible a single ply skin is in other uses.

Bill H.