Inside now glassed. This was the first time the kayak felt strong enough to sit in, so naturally we had to try it out!

The shape is such that a single piece of glasscloth can be used, with no folds or pieces cut out. Keep working at it and it will fit in one. I should have taken a bit longer moothing it out: the bow an stern, whioch should be the hard bits, are good, but there are a couple of small wrinkles along the inside of the chine in the cockpit area. Nothing to really worry about though.

The cloth isn't much wider than the kayak, but I still deliberately put it on at as much of an angle as I could - maybe 5 degrees off straight? I did the same on the outside. This gives two advantages.

• More threads crossing the keel line (cos some of the fore and aft ones do as well a all of the side to side ones) and so more strength and probably abrasion resistance.
• It is easier to mold the cloth to shape at the ends with it on a diagonal.

Note the size of the fillet at the bow. Adds lots of strength without neeing a huge end pour later. Also easier to do the glassclothing than with a tiny fillet.

Apart from just trying it out we are deciding on the location for the footrests. I have large feet and was slightly paranoid about fitting them in, so wanted to mount the footrests right against the inside of the hull, with the bolds set into the wood of the hull - so wanted to mount them from the outside before glassing the outside of the hull.

Anna is trying one out in the picture. Shoes back right, cos we'd change into wetsuit boots for a perfect test!

In retrospect there was plenty of room as you end up pointing your toes naturally anyway, so no need to mount the bolts this way.