I finished building my first kayak about a month ago it is a SOF baised on direction from Robert Morris' book. Other than that fact that it was called an aircraft carrier when viewed next to Harvy Goldens boats at SSTIKS a couple of weeks ago, I am very happy with it except for the polyurethane finish has given me nothing but trouble. Each weekend I go out and use it then spend every evening during the week patching places that have chipped off or cracked. Too much maintance!

I used Olympic brand waterborne polyurethane, gave it about 8-9 coats. The earlier coats where I only had two hours between coats, I did not sand. Someone suggested that this may be part of my problem??

My boys are hot to get started on building theirs now that school is out. I really need to come up with a good finish soon. I have two issues: first do I need to trash the skin that has only been on my boat for less than two months and start over? That is a bit hard to swallow but If I am only wasting my time trying to sand and coat with another product I'd rather get with it. Any thoughts? Second issue is what are any of you SOF builders using that you have found to be durable that I may use on our next boats? I asked a few questions at SSTIKS but I should have taken notes because I really did not come home with any definite name brand of product to go after. I did notice that the skin boats that were there were not having problems like I was experiencing. Some were painted and some had two part polyurethane finishes. Any advice will be appreciated.