Bruce,

I wish that I had asked that question last week. I'm building a Tern and the strip was a major pain. My advice is apply a narrow band of epoxy (4-5 inches) from bow to stern along the keel seam and let it cure. Next pin the tape to the bow, mix small batches of resin (4 ounces), and working a little bit at a time, wet the epoxy underneath the tape, lay the tape down, saturate the tape (it takes a lot of epoxy to saturate that tape), squeegee the tape to get any air bubbles or voids out and smooth it out with a foam brush. I had a really tough time with the tape in several veins. First, it is difficult to wet out (although laying it on a wet epoxy surface helps). Second, it doesn't easily conform to the curves at the bow and stern like the lighter cloth you've been using (use your gloved hands to massage it down and into place if need be). It may also turn up along the edge of the tape, leaving rough edges. Third, you'll probably get some runs and drips in the process (this really upset me because everything had been really smooth up to then.

Here's the good news. Once the epoxy is reasonable hard, you can smooth out these imperfections with sander and scraper. In my own case I spent 3 hours last Saturday fairing out the tape. Did I sand a little bit of the edges of the reinforcing tape? Yes, but little and that's o.k. Just don't sand through the cloth covering the hull. I used coarse, medium and fine grit open coating sandpaper before re-coating with epoxy. The results -- Pretty damned good.

Hang tough Bruce, we'll both be in the water this summer!!!!