Doug,
Well I'll be darned...Did the Gougeon Bros. recently update or improve upon the #207 hardener?
Maybe the stuff I have on hand is outdated? (It's not very old and it still pumps just fine though)
The specs. that I have on the #207 hardener mention that it has an ultraviolet inhibitor in it, but also states that to achieve a long lasting finish, you've also got to use a quality UV-filtering varnish.
A few guys on the boat site have opted for a few different types of sprayed clear coat instead of varnish and the pics sure look awesome, but maybe I've been asleep at the switch and missed the news about that. (Which wouldn't surprise me one bit)
Hey, that's an excellent point about skipping the cloth on the sides.
I'm sure my exterior composition will be plenty rigid enough.
I plan to lay down a 1/4" ply on my stud wall, then glue the 1/4" x 3/4" bead and cove strips over that, giving me a 1/2" thick outer substrate.
Like I say, I'm pretty new to playing with fiberglass and at this point, glassing up my sides of the teardrop prior to glassing up my canoe sure sounds less intimidating than doing the canoe first.
(I'm definately going to do some tests on that also)