John, first off replace the word light with neat. That right there will take off a pound or two by being neat in your application. Second, control the size of the fillets by masking just 1/8 past the drill holes. Third, glued end blocks is a great idea or at least minimize the size and location of the solid epoxy ends by filling a little cardboard dam before installing the deck. Fourth, AND THIS IS THE EASIEST TO MESS UP, with the initial wet-out make sure to squegee evenly so that subsequent fill coats don't have to make up for variations in the height of the saturated glass and causing more applications of fill coats. Fifth, makes subsequent fill coats even so that you don't sand into the glass encouraging more unnecessary coats. Sand gently and intelligently so you aren't tempted to add more epoxy to compensate for over sanding.

Removing wires or going for lighter glass can be misguided if you aren't doing the above. You can make a 45 lb LT18 kayak with the deck glassed with 4oz on BOTH sides and hull glassed with 6oz of both sides and a fill coat in the cockpit. Using only enough epoxy to wet out the glass tape will help a lot or eliminating the glass tape on the chines and relying on a NEAT application of 6oz up the sides (removing wires will help make the hull/side joint neater with clother over it) will save a significant chunk of weight without causing significant structural weaknesses. Oh , don't forget to round off the sheer clamps.