> Has anyone used tight wovensmooth glass? I am looking at using either the
> 3.25 oz. tight wovensmooth glass or 3.75 oz. open weave glass from RAKA. I

Mike,

I just glassed a boat last week with 3.25 oz. tightweave from Raka. It was a multi-chine plywood boat with a very sharp shear (about 85 degree angle near the middle of the kayak).

This was my first time with this glass. I wet out two layers at the same time on the hull. I used Raka epoxy. My shop was a bit cool (about 55 degrees) so the epoxy was a bit thicker than it could have been. However, the wetting out went fine, albeit slow. I poured it on and spread it slowly and with little pressure with a squeegee. I just let the epoxy soak at its own pace and after it had soaked through the glass, a few passes with more pressure got out most of the trapped air. I had no significant problems, other than taking about twice as long as one layer of 6 oz plain weave. I wrapped the ends of the cloth over the ends of the boat and overlapped them (ends were 1/2" thick and rounded). There was no problem getting the glass to lay down smooth and stay there.

One very thin coat of epoxy after the wet out had set up a bit left an absolute glass smooth finish - not a trace of weave.

I put one layer of the same cloth on the deck, and wrapped it about 2" over the shear. I only knocked the corners off a bit with sandpaper, so they were pretty sharp. The glass laid over fine with no problems. I can't get 6 oz plain weave to do that.

About the only thing that I would do different next time would be to warm the shop up a bit to make the epoxy a bit thinner. I should admit that this was a prototype boat and not a production boat, so I wasn't as concerned about the outcome. But I was satisfied with the results. It would seem to me that if the glass was thoroughly wet out and filled with epoxy, it should not be readily peeled off the boat unless the epoxy was not fully cured.

Hope this helps.

Grant