Hello Everyone,

My wife is pregnant with our first, and, instead of feeling a little left out of the whole process, I've begun building a baby cradle boat for our new arrival. It is a 42" strip-planked Bahama-style dinghy. The planks are 1/4" thick, 3/8" wide clear white cedar, with an occasional accent strip of Honduran mahogany. The transom, gunwhales, keel, inner/outer stempiece, breasthook, knees and floorboards are mahogany. The inside is to be finished bright (Epifanes or Z-Spar over West System epoxy). The outside will be Interlux (Endeavor Blue). My question (finally): the hull is obviously quite thin. In addition to the many coats of epoxy (thickened) on the outside, I wish to add a single layer of 'glass. My loacal shipyard (Martha's Vineyard Shipyard) only has 8 oz. and heavier. I'd like to find 2 oz., but would settle for 4 oz. The Shipyard offered me a huge bag of Dynel scraps for free (easily enough to do several baby boats). I have never used Dynel, but my understandings are as follows: Dynel is lighter than fiberglass (especially 8oz.), wets out as easily, doesn't dissappear when the weave is filled (which isn't a problem as the hull isn't to be finished bright, and drapes much more manageably than fiberglass. Does anyone have any reasons why hunting down and paying for lightweight fiberglass would be preferable in this situation? (My intention would still be to fill the weave, build up the surface and fair it)...Not exactly a kayak question, but sentient nonetheless, I hope. Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Cheers,
Forrest