The sharp pointy ends do look good but are vulnerable to damage - and so is someone in the water you might be trying to rescue, not to mention nearby boats. It seems to me that CLC now sells those little plastic ball thingies often seen on the rowing shells. I'm not sure how they're mounted, and you may or may not like their looks.

But just easing the sharpness a bit will definitely be helpful. The weight of glass that you use isn't going to make any real difference. 

Cheers, Grant

There used to be a regular poster on here and the kayak bulletin board that strongly advocated against the sharp ends of the CLC boats.  He always recommended new builders "chop" the ends or heavily round them over to prevent the issues you're seeing and Old Yeller mentioned.

Rounding the ends a bit will help a lot, and since you're repairing any way it shouldn't be too much extra work this time to prevent continuously patching in the future.

FrankP

What about some sort of brass nose cone? A bow thimble as it were. That might look kind of cool.

I've blunted my boat a little and sealed it up, but I do like the pointy look. I'm not inclined to cut too much off of it. 

Dan 

A short strip of brass half oval bent over the pointy ends would offer protection from wear, and wouldn't look too bad either.

Grant

Grant,

I like that idea, but when I looked onto brass half oval stock it was all solid back. I was thinking of something a little softer that I could form to the bow and stern. Maybe some thinner sheeting. .032" or something of that nature. Also this way I wouldn't be adding much weight.

Dan 

Hey Dan - I believe that Lee Garner ("LEEG") was the first major proponent of cutting off the ends.  I'll take up the torch and recommend that everyone cut at least an inch off each end.  I took that much off mine and then rounded them before applying 4 layers of 'glass. If I did it again, I'd cut off another 1/2 inch.  The pointed ends don't look any better (at least to me) and they're down-right dangerous (unless you paddle solo exclusively or only on flat water).  Having spent some time in surf with inexperienced paddlers, I'm very glad that I don't have the pointed ends (and even happier that my paddling friends don't either).  Rounded off with four layers of glass, the ends of my boat have taken big hits without any perceivable damage.  Of course, your mileage may vary (beautiful boats by the way)...

I am  not far off stitching my hull up and I was planning on putting doublers on the ply at the front and rear and then trimming back to this point - it would give me a 16mm "edge" that I would round over before glassing.

I am not sure how much I would need to trim off - so I will be doing a temp stitch first, then work out how much to chop off with temporary ply doublers in each end, undo the stitch, trim off both ends, Epoxy in the doublers and re-stitch.

Anyone actually done this? 

I just left a tapering gap between the side panels at the bow and stern during the stitching. Then I did the fillets, and faired the outsides with thickened epoxy. That way the finished stems were sharp near the waterline, and blunt near deck level.

Cheers, Grant