Hi Shawn,

I think that the flat panel tests have great value in that they tell you what kind of strength various layups give. If you wanted to test the strength of various convex shapes you would have to make all the layups the same to make sure that the varying results are from different shapes alone. This was why, when this debate was held last year I stuck only to the results of the flat panel tests. Adding the various convex/concave shapes into the equation would have made understanding very difficult.

This was the point I tried to make last spring. If the failures are because of of core failure, maybe we should look at the relationship between the core, cloth and resin in order to find a combination that will fail closer together. This would not eliminate catastrophic failure but it would eliminate almost all failures below that point.

The trouble is that unlike an insurance company we do not have access to a huge data bank of imformation on hull failures in strip built kayaks and canoes. Until we get information on a number of failures of various types there is no way to decide what conditions we are trying to improve, unless someone is willing to spend the time and money on controlled experiments.

I guess this is one area that is still left open to the individual builder.

Ian