Hi,

this is my first time posting.  my name is 'h' and i am an active builder and paddler in the USA in the Washington DC area - very close to CLC's headquarters in Annapolis.

i wanted to ask if anybody on this forum had experience working with paulownia wood - everything i have built so far is western red cedar.   paulownia is not very popular here in the states as a kayak building material and not a lot of folks use it or have experience with it.

my next project is focusing on a kayak that i want to be very light.  but i don't want it to break.  i don't expect to be bashing it into any rocks.  just lakes and rivers and poking around shorelines...but nothing really exciting.

when i build light up to now, i use 3/16 (4.78mm) western red cedar.   does anybody have any thoughts they could share on paulownia of the same thickness.

as a general outline, the kayak will be similar in dimensions to the petrel play.

thanks for the help

h