: If I am understanding correctly, you would place the peel ply as the topmost
: layer with the fiberglass below and wet out with expoxy as normal.

: The advantages would presumably be a smoother, more consistent surface and
: less amine blush. Are there others as well. I suppose the die-hard
: perfectionist (which I am not) could even use peel ply over the whole
: kayak?

: In your example,with the North Star,after removing the peel ply you can apply
: the fiberglass to the deck/hull seam and wet out without preparing the
: surface before hand by sanding?

: Hope this is not too redundant as I am only trying to clarify...

: Wesley

You only apply the peel ply where you are planing to bond something to the surface later. Such as the deck/hull joint where you are applying glass tape to reinforce the joint.

It is not intended to make the surface smoother, do that by filling the weave.

The peel ply is wet-out just as if it were fibreglass. It is only needed if you are waiting more than about 48 hours (depending on humidity conditions) and using a resin (epoxy or polyester) which produces an amine blush.

If you do not use peel ply and wait till the resins are no longer green before you make your secondary bonds, you must do an incredible amount of cleaning in an attempt to remove all amine blush (which is like wax) from the weave of the fabric. You could easily see that this may be litterally impossible to do. And you must make the surfaces rough so the new resins have something to hold on to since the bond is no longer a chemical bond, but instead requires a mechanical keying into the surface. Then a large amount of sanding is required and will most likely cut into the fibers of the cloth and weaken the lay-up.

The peel ply leaves a textured surface so the secondary bond can get a good grip on it.

I'm not talking "perfectionist", amine blush will destroy what would have been a strong bond. Try smearing wax on a surface and then bonding something to it with epoxy. After it's all done, test it for strength.

Wax makes a good mold release. you can buy it special for that purpose!

Doug