Hi Patrick,

I'll chime in since I'm guessing its my SWS that your commenting on.  Your concerns are absolutely valid in regards to possible delamination, and that was something I greatly considered before commiting to going ahead with the idea.  I'm certainly not an expert with it being my first kayak build as well as such an enormous epoxy/fiberglass job.  Obviously I decided that any risk was worth it the potential reward.

I was sure to pick an all cotton material so there would be no issue with the epoxy saturating through.  Working the epoxy into the fabric was a bit more challenging than I was expecting, because so much was being absobed by the thick material.  Additionally wetting the fiberglass was also a bit more challenging in that it was more difficult to tell when it was completely wetted.  On bare wood its pretty obvious when you have enough epoxy on, but the patterned fabric minimizes the contrast factor.  I really had to look closely and play with lighting.  BTW, I suppose I should mention that I installed the fiberglass on the material while it was still wet.

Is my job perfect?  No, but its pretty darn good!  I'll be keeping an eye on any spots that look a bit "off".  I suppose the big question is, "would I do it again?".  Without hesitation!!!  The patterned fabric turned out even better than I had hoped!

Dave

 Hi Dave,

Glad you saw this- thanks for the input. I'd love to hear an update after you've lived with it for a while. The effect is terrific and I'd like to give it a try sometime (it's not like I'm already thinking 4 boats ahead or anything!).

So it sounds like you wet out the decorative fabric FIRST and then laid the fiberglass, correct? This makes sense but I didn't want to read into your comment too much. That sounds a lot easier than trying to wet it out like two layers of glass.

Also- did you wet down the bare wood before laying out the decorative fabric, and did you line the entire hull?

I bet we're going to see a lot more of this in the future- thanks for leading the way!

Thanks,

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

You definitely want to wet the fabric independently, and then get the fiberglass on immediately afterwards. The cotton material does absorb quite a bit of epoxy, and this material was a bit heavier than I would have liked.  Unfortunately the design I wanted only comes in one weight.  Overall it is definitely a good bit more work than fiberglass alone, but I think the results are well worth it!

I did not wet the bare wood prior to laying down the material.  I remember that I considered doing that, but opted against it for reasons that I can no longer recall.

I did do the entire hull.  I had plenty of material, so I figured what the heck!  I would not do this again though, as it was a real pain getting the material to conform/fit in the sharp bow and stern.  Since all that material is hidden within anyway the results did not warrant the effort.

Dave