> Greetings,

> I'm a first-time kayak builder, and I'm within a week or so of
> fiberglassing (I'm building the Guillemot Coastal, and my husband is
> building the Laughing Loon Panache).

> I've been looking at a few different epoxy resin systems, and I was
> wondering if anyone has used the product made by Tap Plastics,
> "Premium Grade Marine Epoxy System." Given the price points and
> local availability of Tap and System Three (both about $50/gal), I'm
> trying to choose between the two. System Three's "Epoxy Trial
> Kit" and "The Epoxy Book" should be wending their way to my
> mailbox right now, so hopefully I'll have more of a clue about their
> product soon.

> Any suggestions, brand comparisons, etc would be greatly appreciated!

> Also, I was planning on buying fiberglass from Tap.. 6oz, 38" at
> $4.50/yd. Does anyone know of a discount supplier (or does anyone have
> 20-50yds they're trying to get rid of)?

> Thanks! -Kara

> ps - "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak" is an EXCELLENT book. Great
> job, Mr. Schade. _

Kara,

I tried Tapp Plastic's epoxy and will not use it again. It fish-eyes pretty bad. I don't know if it was just the way I applied it or what but I never had any problem with the MAS epoxy I used to almost complete my kayak. (I bought the Tapp Plastic's epoxy just in case I ran out of MAS). I also got the trial kit from System 3. I used that to build my paddle and it worked about as good as MAS (MAS epoxy is what came with my Tred Avon kit from CLC, my first boat building experience). MAS and System 3 should be about as easy to use as it gets. Those are the only ones I can vouch for. Have fun building,

Jim Horlacher