Strick
“There are some imperfections. I don't know how they got there because the mold was smooth. I'm thinking too much wax”
The imperfections that you are getting are called alligator or pre-release. They are caused by one of three things, either the gel-coat is to thin, the cure time of the skin coat is two slow, or the gel-coat pre-released off the tool from shrinkage "to thick". From the pictures the Gel coat looks good, no pin holes/fish eyes/pools. I would bet cure time of the skin coat.
I used to build a lot of one-off molds and I would use Whiteboard for a tooling surface “particleboard with a white melamine surface bonded to it”or Formica. The material is not porous like MDF and is about the same price. We used 3-coats of high temp wax and one light spray of PVA. I think Home depot sells something like it now.
Great Job with the Boat! Keep up the good work.
http://www.thelaminexgroup.com.au/tr...ials/index.asp