: I wondered whether anyone here has technical knowledge of epoxy
: paint to comment.

Not technical knowledge, but I did put quite a few gallons of Sherwin-Williams 'Tile-clad' 2-part epoxy paint on my sailboat.
That paint wasn't much like boatbuilding epoxy (WEST,SystemThree,etc).
The epoxy paint was far from 100% solids - it had lots of volatiles (definitely needed a good mask when applying, and I wouldn't use it in my house) , and the coating was fairly thin when cured. Great paint, though.

The mixing and pre-application 'cooking' period was important; I also followed the temperature guidelines as closely as I could- as I recall it needed 70 deg F or so.
For something canoe-sized, an improvised 'tent' with some (safe) electrical heat could get the epoxy to cure better.

I don't know if the canoe builder was using 'epoxy mat' or not.

That building technique (unglued plywood strips with thin glass on both sides) might just work with boatbuilding epoxy and woven glass. It really combines some features of S&G and strip building, without some critical parts (fillets of S&G, edge gluing strips) of each method.

WEST and similar epoxies may be more expensive in the UK than Canada, but I think I could glass a strip canoe that size with WEST for not much more money than that floor paint cost.

Epoxy paint might be a good tough coating over a regular build - and quite a bit cheaper than the 2-part marine paints. I don't know if other brands have a wider choice of colors....

Still, it's nice to see people experimenting with different build methods.