I agree. A lot of people fall into the trap of using short, fast strokes while sand, planing, sawing or filing. I guess they figure the job will go faster if they move the tool faster. While this may be true, it only works when you don't go faster by making the strokes shorter. People also want to remove a flaw immediately, so they work on it until its gone. This creates hollows.

Rapid, short strokes tire you out and aren't very effective. Fairing the boat is a whole boat operation best done with the whole body. When planing and sanding the boat, I use strokes that are 18 inches to 2 feet long. Don't concentrate on one spot. Go quickly over the whole boat several times instead of trying to get each spot perfect before moving to the next.

I find I work best if I'm systematic about it. Starting at one end of the boat, I work from centerling to sheerline, moving the plane or sanding parallel to the length of the boat. I do about 18" at a time and overlap about 6" as I move down the length. I don't worry about the results initially, I just want to cover the whole boat. I go over the whole boat several times with a plane, then again with a long fairing board. I then inspect the boat for problems by looking down the length of the boat and running my hands over everything. If there are high spots, I knock them off with a plane. Low spots require you remove wood surrounding the spot. The larger area arround the spot you remove, the fairer the boat will be.

I then go over the whole boat with a random orbital to get rid of the remaining plane marks and give the surface a consistent texture. The entire operation can be accomplished in half a day and can be very satisfying.

: Most people work too hard at the sanding. They sand in small frantic strokes
: bearing down heavily on the paper. This causes localized dips and hollows
: in the surface, clogs the sandpaper and creates deep scratches. Sanding
: epoxy that is less than fully cured with a fast stroke heats up the
: surface, softening it and causing the paper to clog even faster. Clogged
: sandpaper doesn't cut and tired people don't like sanding.