hi john, this is Erez Segev here.

I'm about the same step you're at, but with a coho. after reading your message, I disconnected my brain from the computer screen, & walked to my "used to be living room". these days it accomodates hull & deck of a coho, & also lots of other mess. needless to say, I am single ! I looked at the butt seems. It is very very very hard to see any weave. in fact, i can only see it because I know it's there, but for example you, will never see anything there. I looked again. forget it man, you can't see anything !

back to your kayak: I assume the epoxy flooded the glass tape, & the epoxy layer fills the step between the tape & the plywood. if not, then I believe it should be that way. on my hull there is no height difference on the epoxy, between the tape & the wetted plywood. all I'm missing is time to sand the whole thing & glass it.

perhaps the butt tapes were wetted with "epoxy foam", I mean the epoxy that's filled with lots & lots of tiny air bubbles till it looks white. perhaps not.

are you still worried about the beautiful wood/grain look ?! good for you. I gave it up long ago, when I burried a "2M(R)" sticker under the epoxy. all I care about is alignment & strength. I don't want to go in circles forever.

my brain tells me that you will have to sand some of the tape if you want to wet it again, & still, I'm not sure you'll be able to wet it out completely. my brain may or may not be wrong/right.

got my "bosworth guzzler 500" today. what a monster ! it's way much larger then what you see on the catalogue.

enjoy the building. enjoy the paddling.

erez

> Long time lurker and first time builder having a blast. Quick question:

> I have just wet out the hull of my Arctic Tern with epoxy and am ready to
> glass but can still see the weave from the glass tape on a couple of the
> panels butt seams. I got the impression from the manual that they would
> clear themselves out which in retrospect was probably a silly idea. I'm
> wondering if I should try sanding back down to the tape and wetting it out
> again? I think that my biggest concern is messing up in glassing the whole
> hull, it is an absolute work of art at the moment and I would hate to
> spoil the beautiful look of the wood/grain by not being able to get it
> completly clear during the next step. Thank you very much to all, I sure
> have learned alot keeping up with this board!