patrick mitchel wrote:
a stitch and glue kayak made from lauan ply (the cheap doorskin/non
waterproof). Kept under cover in the mild southern california coastal
climes. Showing delam in the areas where the ply has extensive exposure to
end grain (cockpit coaming, hatches). Also occasional splits on the sides
where impacts have occurred and allowed to open a bit. What's the best
strategy to keep splitting to a minimum (yeah, I know, marine grade ply.
Aint gonna happen- not in the budget.) When building the boat might the best
strategy have been a couple layers of thinned epoxy to penetrate the end
grain and flat surfaces given me a better chance of not having to deal with
this fairly minor problem (considering the age of the boat is approaching
10 yr old) It was fun to build the boats and the one that spent the majority
of it's life in a garage looks a lot better in the splitting dept (or the
lack of splits). Thanks Pat

You've answered your own questions. Build the boat with the right
materials (marine grade ply) and seal it with epoxy. Is the boat
sheathed in fiberglass? If not, it should be.

The bottom line is that if you build a boat to last, it will. If you
build it cheap, you have to regard it as disposable and/or expect to
repair it frequently. You can't have it both ways.