I bought this Prism from a guy this winter who got it from Sawbill a number of years ago. When Sawbill owned it, they put a coat of epoxy mixed with graphite powder over the bottom for extra protection. Some of it has chipped away and she is showing some wear and tear, so I am refurbishing it over the winter. My question is this-- Prisms are made in factory with a vinyl ester resin, I believe. I also have read that you can epoxy over vinyl ester, but you shouldn't vinyl ester over epoxy. So if it were you, would you

I am going to mix some graphite powder in and refurbish the bottom, but as long as I am at it I will do the top part to (clear).

Would you split and reapply epoxy on the bottom and reapply vinyl ester on the top, use epoxy over the whole thing, or use vinyl ester over the whole thing?

Again--I will mix the graphite in the bottom part just to cover up the chips.

I know many would say just leave it as is-- but I enjoy doing the refurbishing of my boatds.

As you already noted you can't apply Vinylester over epoxy. If it were me I'd just do the epoxy/graphite on the bottom and leave the upper section alone.

If you're determined to put something on the top portion I'd just throw some marine spar varnish on it to make it looks nice and provide some UV protection. Epoxy is expensive and I don't think you'll get much benefit from putting it on that portion of the canoe.

As you said I'd stick to the graphite/epoxy for the bottom. Hopefully it doesn't have gel coat under the epoxy (doesn't look like it from the photo) if so you can plan on doing this again.

keth0601: "If you're determined to put something on the top portion I'd just throw some marine spar varnish on it to make it looks nice and provide some UV protection. Epoxy is expensive and I don't think you'll get much benefit from putting it on that portion of the canoe.

As you said I'd stick to the graphite/epoxy for the bottom. Hopefully it doesn't have gel coat under the epoxy (doesn't look like it from the photo) if so you can plan on doing this again. "

I think that's the plan. I sanded down a bit of the graphite epoxy and am going to apply a new coat to fill in the spots that need it, then I will do light sand again and put a coat of spar on it. That should be all it needs.