Fragile

Despite how fragile they look, I've found the kayaks quite durable. There have already been a couple of occasions when, trying to single handedly load one of the boats back onto a pair of sawhorses I've dropped one end onto the floor. After cursing my clumsiness I've checked the area where it hit and never a scratch. Anyhow, at the state they're in I can probably patch anything that might happen to them fairly easily.

One kayak has been fitted out with its deck beams and foot pedals and is ready for the deck to be applied. The other is still waiting on some hull fairing and exterior epoxy. I've been procrastinating a bit on the second boat; partially because it's more fun to work on the boat that's so much further along and boat-like, partially because I'm not looking forward to a repeat of the fiasco that was fiber-glassing the first boat.

The trouble was the foam rollers. Once exposed to the epoxy they soon started to disintegrate, leaving little bits of foam in my nice smooth finish. I would go through a couple of rollers in a coat, chasing each with a brush to pull out all the little bits of foam from the freshly applied epoxy. Having to apply 4-5 coats I was able to experiment with a few different brands of roller, and all more or less exhibit this behavior.

I was hoping to have found some type of elegant solution to this problem, so the next time it would be a breeze to fiberglass the second boat. But I've found nothing yet.