I think the Shearwater kit uses 4 oz glass for everything, including the hull. Probably a little thin to go with only one layer on the bottom and pointy ends.

Perhaps if you used 6 oz. glass for the hull it might work? Would that really save much weight?

Ogata 

Hmm, guess the Pax 20 uses only 4 oz glass as well. Just one layer?

As often as I end up blundering into the ocassional oyster bed, Rks, Subm piles, Obstr, unexploded ordnance., etc. I kind of like the idea of having a little extra glass on the scrapey parts. 

Ogata 

so maybe 6oz cloth ? im really trying to get out of the exta work and having all those extra seams to feather if the extra cloth is just abbrasion resistance i dont need it

Use the 4 as per the kit.

The seam from the second sheet goes to the side of the boat. The same side panel as the top piece that hangs over the joint where the 2 halves meet. You are sanding the same exact area on the same side panel whether you use 6 oz once or 4 oz twice. The 4 oz is so easy to work with, makes for a nice neat job, a great finished product.

Building the boat the right way, the way it was intended to be built, is not 'extra' work. Shortcuts have a way of coming back to bite you. If you are gonna build, do a nice job.

Hey ogata -

You ain't kidding.That extra glass is a good thing to have.

Laszlo 

Wow Lazlo, where is this bucolic little picnic spot? What a great place to have an extra layer of glass on the soft, vulnerable underbelly!

This reminds me, it's a beautiful day, nothing like a nice paddle through a DANGER AREA or two!

On a more serious note, it's 4 oz glass, so not too hard to feather. I sanded my Shearwater hybrid hull out entirely by hand using the folded piece of sandpaper recommended in the manual. It wasn't that bad. 

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Ogata 

ogata,

That was, appropriately enough, on Saltpeter Creek in Maryland. I was on the way back from having paddled my pirogue out to the Chesapeake and I spotted a lovely little beach that looked like a grand picnic spot. Clean white sand, completely deserted, a blue heron rookery nearby. But it had a sign of some sort that was hidden by all the greenery. So I paddled up close to where I could read it and decided that a skedaddle was in order (but not before snapping a quick picture for all my friends). Later on I found out that the beach is part of the Aberdeen Proving Ground. That's one sign I'll always obey!

Laszlo 

Brings back memories. The Aberdeen Proving Grounds were the home sailing waters for me and my siblings.  Dad must have known that his little family was safe from tankers and freighters there.

Actually, we sailed out of the north end of the Northeast River, and Chesapeake breezes being what they were, there were days when it was a stretch even  to reach Turkey Point at the end of the Northeast. Close, but not quite within authorized Aberdeen gun range.

Ok, this is well of topic, but it is a little ironic that more than a few of the "unspoiled", remote, coastal areas that would seem like prime territory for the intrepid sea kayaker, peaceful, off-the-beaten-track picnic spots -- are seen by military pilots as good places to unload pesky ordnance! Enemy kayaks at 4 o'clock! At 'em boys!

Lawrence Millman writes about a trip he took to an extremely remote beach in Labrador in his book "Last Places". He found it littered with all sorts of possibly explosive military paraphernalia of indeterminate origin. No one seemed to have any idea how it got there, or how old it might be. He also found himself not infrequently buzzed by NATO aircraft engaged in military exercises:)

I have fond memories of being buzzed by NATO aircraft myself sailing out of Solomons in the 1970s. More than a few 'DANGER AREA's, targets, 'PROHIBITED ZONE's to watch out for down there. Even the occasional exploding, falling-from-the-sky aeroplane! Good times....

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Ogata 

Laszlo,

Hey, is that where you took Renee and I paddling?  Where the bullets were zinging over our heads?  :)

 Ross

Ross, quit exaggerating. You know very well that it was only one bullet.

That was the upper Patuxent, BTW, so it was rednecks, not the US Army.

So how's the new yak coming? In a vain attempt to un-hijack the thread, how many layers of kevlar you putting on?

Laszlo

I remember two bullets.  Perhaps there were more, but I wouldn't have been able to hear them over the sound of my planing kayak hull as we high-tailed it outta there.  :)

Ross