> I'll let others respond to most of your questions, but I wanted to say
> something about paint vs. varnish. If you paddle in an area with a lot of
> boat traffic you really should paint your hull a bright color. I've almost
> been run down a few times by (probably drunk) sports fishing boat
> operators. Imagine a 36-foot Hatterras coming at you out of the fog at 30
> knots, it's driver sucking on a Bud. In addition I've heard how hard it is
> for a rescue boat to spot an upside-down all-varnished hull. We often tell
> this story to our customers. It is totally irresponsible for any company
> to tell it's customers that all boats should be varnished. It's hard for
> CLC to say this since we use Shelman wood which has the best face veneers
> of any made. Varnishing all our boats would result in more sales if they
> were compared to others, but it wouldn't be the right thing to do. And
> yes, even strip built boats should at least have a bright stripe if they
> are paddled on busy waterways. Nick, do you agree?

> Safe paddling, Chris Chesapeake Light Craft

I am not Nick but I agree. I painted my Chesapeake in fact. Then only thing I don't like about that is it gets marred pretty quickly when the paint chips off. I have wondered about the possibility of putting on one paint code directly to wood, then glassing, then more paint so that the inevitible scratches would not be so apparent. I was told, however, of a probably better fix.....using a coloring agent for the epoxy which apparently is readily available. In any event, I feel most comfortable being as visible as possible which includes a reflective tape on boat, bright colored everything, good lighting at night, dayglo painted paddle blades, and I recently bought one of those neon green baseball caps (from EB Marine). This would not be good for Navy Seal work, however.

-D-