: I have a couple of questions. I am about 90% done with my second kayak, and
: arctic tern HI.
: I had ment to get it into the water on jan 1st, like I did last year, but
: luckly I was too hung-over for that. (I can hear the announcer now:
: "Welcome to the second annual new years day kayak launching, followed
: by the 100yrd_ swim_to_shore_pushing_a_flooded_kayak at beautiful lake
: Its_so_cold_youll_be_infertel_for_a_month.)

: "A friend" once told me that it is recommended to wait a few months
: before finishing epoxying and varnishing, to let all of the reaction
: finish etc. I have not heard about this anywhere else, and have closely
: read system3's book and directions on their varnish with out seeing this.
: therefor question is "is this BS?"

: My next boat will be a morris designed greenland SOF. I am planning to use KD
: Fir for the long members (keel, stringers, and sheer) (are there problems
: with this?) and am thinking about cedar or ash for the ribs. I can get
: green cedar at the local Home Despot. It seems to me that ash would be
: better (as in harder and stronger), but it is a lot more difficult to get
: around here. thoughts?

there were several small spots on my boat which needed "touch up" epoxy. The epoxy on the rest of the boat had already cured for a number of weeks. Only waited about five days before varnishing. The newly epoxied spots looked fine before varnishing. I was able to sand them down and everything looked ok. But !!! Sure enough my touch up spots got cloudy under the varnish afterwards. These were the only problem spots I had on the boat. It could be that the epoxy needed more time to cure in my relatively moist basement. A lesson from one who learned the hard way.