Slow progress on the Black Pearl (yet to give it my own name yet) kayak. I’ve added stems (just the white paulownia so not so tough but shows up nicely against the stained hull), and I’ve been applying a fairing compound made of epoxy, lightweight filler, wood dust etc.
Just waiting 7 days now for it to thoroughly set before I sand back.
Here’s a pic:
Biggest lesson from all this… get the strips flat before staining! Basically the better the stripping the easier the rest will be.
Staining has been interesting… painful but interesting. The Resene Colorwood stain does work but you definitely need only a light rag application and maybe a wash with water after it’s set up. For the fairing I’ve managed to replicate the color using epoxy colours (black, blue and red – I watched them making it at Resene so I knew the constituent colours and proportions – it was on a their computer screen 
Hard to get a good photo while it sits in the garage but this boat looks real sleek.
