: Well enough lurking on this board and on to building.

Go for it Ken!

When I built my Chesapeake 17, I drastically overbuilt. It came in at 57 lbs--11 lbs over spec.

You know the big one--keep the fillets small. Also keep your endpours small or light. Use phenolic or glass microballoons to get the same volume filled at a lower density. You don't need a 10-oz. solid epoxy chunk in the ends. In my Guillemot, I filled nearly the same volume with 4.5 oz. of epoxy and about 6 oz (volume) of glass microballoons.

If you glass the inside of the boat or the cockpit area, it is unnecessary to fill the weave completely. Perhaps a single fill coat to just fill in the tiny pinholes between the weaves of the glass.

Sand between fill coats on the outside of the boat. The weave of the glass "telegraphs" through successive layers of epoxy. By sanding in between, you knock off the peaks of the "mountains" and just fill the valleys like you need to.

Shawn