On my canoe I put a "football" shape piece of 'glass along the bottom of the hull for greater resistance to dings from the local rocks. It works well, by the way.

I sealed the hull with a coat of resin and sanded off any high spots or drips. The small piece of glass went on the hull first and was covered with the full piece of glass cloth. This way the loose edges of the small piece were trapped under the full layer of cloth and I did not have any rough edges to sand off later. I just used a squeegee to wet out the cloth, both layers at the same time.

Small batches of resin work best. Once I thought I had the technique mastered I mixed a batch of resin that was about twice the size of the previous batch, and it was a big mistake. The resin "kicked" and got hot far faster than I expected. Once it started to thicken it was totally a waste.

I got a few small air bubbles, but nothing worse than with a single layer of glass cloth. I pricked them with a sewing needle before putting on the fill coat and a few of them seem ot have filled in. I just ignored the others. They were too small and too far apart to matter to me. Nobody is looking at the hull too closely -- and if they do, the scratches from the rocks attract their attention long before tiny air bubbles do. (It is a caone, not a coffee table)

Next time I am going to change things a bit. I'll use multiple layers of lighter weave fabric, probably 2 ounce instead of 6 ounce cloth. I'll use less resin to seal the hull (I let it soak in -- as much as the wood would take) putting on just enough to coat it evenly. If it soaks deeply into the wood, great. There will be less on the surface to sand off. Before applying hte cloth I'll roll on a layer of resin over half the boat ( or the whole thing if I have a helper) and I'll lay my first layer of glass onto the wet area, and then use a squeegee to force the resin through the cloth, from the bottom up through the weave. Then I'll add a light coat of resin to the top of the cloth and rapidly go over it with the squeegee once before adding the second layer of fabric. If I put on a third or 4th layer, I'll put them on now. There should be enough resin already applied to start wetting it out. I'll just add a little to the dry areas if I find any.

Once the first layer of cloth is wetted out it will stick nicely to the hull and not shift when additional layers are dropped on top.

Hope this helps.

Paul G. Jacobson