Wood... I was not able to find anything in 1/8 locally so what the heck, lets play with what we got! The options were 1/4 luan or 1/4 birch. The birch was 2 1/2 times the cost and while it did look better on the outside, had the same interior laminations! Like Nick said in his journal, "the whole boat was an experiment"

on varnish, Filling the weave with varnish worked super. We spent a week fighting with epoxy sags, runs, fisheyes... before my co-builder revolted and tore into the spar varnish. Wow what a difference. A couple of good coats and the weave is floated, a couple more for the other sins, and volia! a nice looking boat! I have good friends that build experimental (homebuilt) composite aircraft and the one of the worst sins you can make is over filling the weave. You put in just enough for strength, fill with microballons and paint. Obviously our goals are different in the finishing end, clear vs painted, but I can't help agree that extra epoxy is only good for adding weight.

Like Dennis "Monday Night" Miller says, "But thats only my opinion, I could be wrong" Vernon