On boat #1, my Pygy Arctic Tern, I followed their instructions, which were to do a fill coat, and have had no problems. On boat #2 in progress, an Outer Island, I followed Jay Babina's instructions and didn't do a fill coat.

I go along with the rationale of Jay, George, and others -- that you will get better adhesion by applying the cloth directly to the wood on one step. The theoretical advantages are: 1) The fill coat puts a layer of epoxy on top of the wood, so the fiberglass cloth can't be as close to the wood. This means it's heavier and weaker. 2) There's no wondering how well the second layer of epoxy adhered to the fill coat. The one thing to watch out for with this method is that you apply enough epoxy to saturate the wood. This is why some do a fill coat, to ensure good penetration of epoxy into the wood. If memory serves, George has a hybrid method where he rolls epoxy directly on the wood, rolls the cloth onto the wet epoxy, then applies another coat in/on the cloth, pressing the cloth tight to the wood.

Dean

> What is the LATEST on this hot topic. I'm almost ready to start glassing
> my Expedition. Do I precoat the wood or wetout glass over bare wood. There
> seems to be good arguments for both methods. On earlier boats, I precoated
> with no problems. I find it interesting the on again, off again of this
> subject. It seems those that used to precoat, now don't and those that
> didn't, now do. Throughly confused!!

> Larry C.