Lee,

Thanks for the info. Adding 10 lbs of extra boat weight just for better abrasion resistance does seem excessive. Maybe I'll just keep the 2 layers of regular glass and just repair them if they get too damaged over time.

Randy
> , Randy

> the other fabrics don't wet out clear but if you mask off the area and use
> pigmented epoxy,or make the fill and finish coats of epoxy with graphite
> then the black strip looks nice and functional. Kevlar is abrasion
> resistant but the fuzziness looks awful. S glass is a little more abrasion
> resistant than regular glass but not worth the effort unless you have to
> have a near clear finish,but even two or three layers of 6oz s glass will
> be thick and wood grain will not show that clearly but the wood color will
> show through fine.

> I'm guessing the best combination would be one or two layers of Dynel at
> the highest point of wear at the stern. Maybe a 1 1/2" wide strip by
> two feet,and another 1" strip on top or whatever is appropriate for
> your boat. Dynel soaks up resin like a sponge, so be sure to press it down
> will some kind of peel ply,plastic wrap? nylon? It will be very hard to
> fair/sand the epoxy/Dynel unless the epoxy is very hard and cured, so be
> neat.

> I talked to a salesman at Defender last year about polyester,Dynel,etc
> fabrics for covering little wood boats, He relayed the anecdote about a
> camp counselor that wanted to make some tough little boats. He made three
> small scale canoes,one cover with glass,another with Dynel,another with
> polypropylene? or polyester. After constructing these rough prototypes he
> dragged them around the camp behind his car! The glass one went through to
> the wood,the dynel one was scratched but no wood,and the other one was in
> between. But if you used one of these fabrics instead of glass you would
> easily add another 10 lbs to the boat. which is why my clc 16 weighs about
> 50lbs.

> One of the things I like about Nick Schade's book is that he shows folks
> ways of maximizing the use of glass where it is needed.