Epoxy

In my zeal to get the hulled glassed I completely forgot to apply the decorative kingfisher decals we had printed on rice paper.  Now I'm wondering if I can epoxy them on and put a few layers of epoxy over them for protection before sanding the hull prior to varnishing.  What do you think?

Alternatively, the print shop that printed the rice paper also printed the design on plastic with an adhesive backing.  So I could wait until after varnishing and stick those on, but I'm concerned they may peel off in the salt water.

In my zeal to get the hulled glassed I completely forgot to apply the decorative kingfisher decals we had printed on rice paper.  Now I'm wondering if I can epoxy them on and put a few layers of epoxy over them for protection before sanding the hull prior to varnishing.  What do you think?

Alternatively, the print shop that printed the rice paper also printed the design on plastic with an adhesive backing.  So I could wait until after varnishing and stick those on, but I'm concerned they may peel off in the salt water.

In my zeal to get the hulled glassed I completely forgot to apply the decorative kingfisher decals we had printed on rice paper.  Now I'm wondering if I can epoxy them on and put a few layers of epoxy over them for protection before sanding the hull prior to varnishing.  What do you think?

Alternatively, the print shop that printed the rice paper also printed the design on plastic with an adhesive backing.  So I could wait until after varnishing and stick those on, but I'm concerned they may peel off in the salt water.

I am in the process of building a CNC Vember and used MAS LV epoxy for the layup and initial fill coat.  This is the second boat I have built using MAS recently.  While I love the ease of wet out, the bubbles are driving me crazy. On this particular boat I applied an initial seal coat and let the boat cure overnight.   The layup was performed at a constant 75 degrees (as measured by a digital thermometer sitting adjacent to the boat).   The first fill coat was applied by brush (using Nick’s suggested technique) according to the cotton swap test.

On my 'to-Do' list for this week was fabricating a new glass/carbon/epoxy seat for my next kayak project (Bjorn Thomasson Njord).

While I've built 5 S&G boats, I know very little about how to varnish them; I just blindly did as I was told. That's no longer satisfactory. Lately I've been reading forums, etc, about the subject but I still have a couple unresolved questions. And I think the answers would be of interest to other builders.

Hi all, 

I'm now in a point where final sanding is more or less done and in some places I have reached glass fibers too (edges of overlaps and reinforcement patches). Should I seal these areas with epoxy before applying varnish? I'm worried, that the glass matrix will be visible under the varnish unless it isn't surrounded with epoxy. This is my first boat to build and the finish will be far from perfect anyway. So if the effect is minuscule, then it won't really matter. I'm using a natural oil based boat varnish (Le Tonkinois).

I completed a Guillemot Petrel late last fall so it never saw water, stored indoors all winter. I got it out this spring and something had happened to the finish. I am assuming I made a BIG mistake as I have built several kayaks and this is the first finish problem I have had. I thought I followed the same procedure as on previous boats but apparently not .  .  .  .

A couple weeks ago I took time out from other projects to do some quick maintenance on a few a my kayaks. I had a broken back band, worn out gasket and a big ding to deal with. The video is below.

Probably of most interest to people is dealing with the beat up bottom of my Petrel Play SG. This boat has a single layer of glass on the bottom, doubled up only on the keel line. I take this boat to play in rock gardens where the surge sometimes drops me hard on pointy rocks.