Hi Steve,

I didn't know you could order 3/16" thick strips pre-made. How did you like the strips they shipped you, I mean about the colors and grain pattern, did they ship you a selection of colors so you could come up with a nice pattern ? And I have heard that they can ship the strips in up 18' or 20' lengths.

I had the same concerns about laying out the glass as you mentioned. But the glass did conform to the tail and bow shape very, very easily. I thought it would be a pain and thinking about it before hand made we wonder how I would do it, but it was best to just lay out the glass cause it is no problem. But there was another issue I didn't get as best as it could be. I am just telling you my experience, so maybe Rob or someone else can add to this if I get something wrong. As I said the glass conformed real nicely to the bow and the tail, but I made the mistake of thinking it was a good idea to "wrap" the glass around the tail and bow end. I say after my experience DON'T DO THAT. I would (if I could do it again( cut the glass flush to the tail and bow end and let the first glass go at that. Then I would cleanly wrap end cover pieces over the ends to "wrap" the ends. This would be a lot easier than foldong the glass over like I did. I had no problem with the glass at all EXCEPT for the "wrapped" ends I did, they cause a lot of unnecessary work and it was hard to get the glass wetted out fully. After all this extra work I ended up with very uneven ends and had to work extra to make it smooth again (which if i just didn't "wrap" the ends would have not been necessary). About the second layer of glass, yes I did put it on. I would like to have skipped it too, but I have heard from lots of people (Rob in particular) that it should have 2 layers on the bottom outside. I know it is not a good Idea to stand on the bottom of the boat unless it is fully in the water, but I have paddled enough to know that sometimes I am tempted to put my weight on the hull when it is at tleast partially on the shore, so I really want extra strength there. I hope others here would comment on the facts concerning the "extra" layer of glass on the bottom. It was really no problem to add the second layer (I did this second layer after the first glass had set up). The only concern on second layer is the "edge". I followed Rob;s advise and bought 38" wide glass and the factory edge was no problem, but the "cut" edge was ragged and that was a pain to smooth, not only on the second bottom piece but even more on the end "cap" pieces. I di buy a rolling cutter (it is like a pizza cutter) but I still had a frayed edge. System 3 suggests running a piece of masking tape underneath and the cutting along the edge when the glass is "green" to create a clean edge. I did n't really consider this as much as I should have (not sure I understood it enough, and didn't realize it was going to be so important, so I didn't take the time to do it. To sum up, the glass was easy, except for the overlapping edges. If I could do it again: 1.) No Wrapping. 2.) Put the effort needed into making the edges of the overlapped glass as smooth as possible. Also to remind you to not "scuff" the glass after it is layed but before it is coated to fill the weave. I admit that I couldn't resist taking a straght edge razor blade to my "overlapped seams" to feather them before I coated the glass. This went well (it was a little pain though and kept me feeling a little worried while I was doing it) but that went so well that I made the mistake of scrapping off the "high" points of the glass itself. It seemed like a good idea at the time (thought it would be good to cut down on the amount of "fill" the fill coat had to fill. Thinking it would save some weight. But despite my care on this scrapping, I did end up "scuffing" the glass in a few places and now in these few places it looks like I "starved the glass. No one else notices these spots at all, but I sure do, and it was not a good feeling to have ignored advise and to have caused this problem unnecessarily. I sometimes pay a price for trying out some of my ideas. Sometimes I come up with a real improvement, but sometimes I just end up makng a problem for no reason .... oh well, live and learn. Alos I think that knocking down the high spots on the glass wasn't even a good idea as far as weight. I think now that leaving the weave "full" would have better and easier to do the fill coats on.

If you skip my mistakes you should have an eay time of it. What resin are you using ?? I'm using system 3 and it is real good, and I used their clear coat to do the glassing. The clear coat is thin and has plenty of time to do the glass before it set up. I used their regular resin for the fill coats and it was fine too. I did notice that it sets up a little fat (for me) with the medium hardner for me to want to do the glass with. But that could be made right by "custom" mixing the hardner (I bought med, fast and slow hardner). One thing I really don't like about System 3 is their "tech" support. I have called them 3 times with solid questions and gottne straight to the point, but except for one time I got a fellow who has the attitude of "What ???" You know what I mean, instead of understanding that it is his JOB to answer questions that may even seem unnecessary to a knowlegable builder. DUH!! They must know that a large part of their market is "home builders" so why put some guy with "What?? attitude who seems not to have any idea of the concerns of the first time boat builder. Anyway it was just a pain to get off the phonw ITHOUT the answer I needed and having to spend time talking to a guy with an attutude, who frankly seemed to have only the vaugest idea what I was talking about. Almost like I had gotten the wrong number, but the guy would see if he could try to figure out my question anyway, with the predictable unstatisfactory results. Anyway just put my bitch in her about them, since they charge plenty and make you pay for the "tech" support call and then give you no (real) help while acting like your an ass ! It has soured me on the company and if I had to do it again I think I would use MAS. I have heard such good things about them, but don't know their product line or prices. I have also heard good things about RAKA, but I have heard that this is just repagaged expoxy without any additional additives that system 3 goes on about as being in their product. I don't know which is true, is the best epoxy really specially formulated with precise additives or is Raka just as good as this formula epoxy.

The fill coats are just about finished now, maybe one more and then the sand with 100 so I can flip it over !

It is a good thing to have my hull really, really one piece now. I envy you having your whole strong back on rollers, must be nice. I don't have the room for that, but I have enough !!

Arthur