: Why dacron? I investagated fabrics to the max.
: I use Polyester - 13 oz boutht from Dyson. Recommended by bill Lowe as
: well as Dyson. It has a 15% heat shrink (extreme heat - heat gun)

Jay, I believe the shrinkage on the 13 ounce polyester is 1.5%, not 15%. I found that shrinking it was almost a waste of time. I was using farm more heat than I cared to and all it did was remove a few wrinkles. Bill Low indicated to me that my results were par for the course.

That said, I do like the polyester. I'm probably going to use Dyson's 9 ounce poly next time. It's a bit more flexible, lighter, just the right width for a kayak skin (60") and 1/3 the price of the 13 ounce fabric. Harvey Golden uses it quite a bit and loves it, which is a good enough endorsement for me.

: I sealed my skin with
: epoxy,. I have a friend on this board (Pete Strand) who uses spar varnish
: with good results - same skin.

Bill Low recommends Zar Satin Polyurethane, with Gaco UA7000 over that. I'm using the Zar alone and it seems to be holding up well.

: The lacing will be waterproof with whatever
: coating you put on since it's double stitched. (stitched together and
: rolled over and stitched again.

The place that I get leakage is where the deck lines pass through the fabric. Polyurethane varnish is apparently not flexible enough to seal the lines for long. I'm going to be varnishing the boat again, then I plan to seal the line holes with something flexible, probably Marine Goop.

: By the way, two years on the epoxy finish over Poly. and it held up perfect.
: No problems.

Jay, did you varnish over the epoxy for UV protection?