: Thanks Aron, was hoping to get more answers but ......

: Looks like that is one big point in favor of paint then. Just got some scales
: in where I could weight my boats and I was surprised at how much heavier
: the painted boat was than the ZAR coated one. About 2-3 lbs. But it took
: several quarts to seal that polyester skin and I still have some seepage I
: have not found.

Depends I think entirely on the paint used. I've tried water based paint and while it can work, I'll never do it that way again. Stuff is way too thin and takes a zillion coats (ok, only seems like a zillion at the time ) to fill the weave. If I were to try this again I'd make a series of test panels first and try different paints until I found one that filled the weave quickly.

Bill H.