You'r right. Why precoat?

This is an old controversy that will probably die with us.

I tried it both ways and am convinced that it's totally unnecessary. In the last issue of Wooden Boat ther's an article on glassing a canoe and the author does not precoat the wood. In the books Caneocraft, The Strippers Guide to Canoe Building, and Gil Fitzpatricks book on stripping the canoe, they do not precoat the wood. The West system video does not recommend pre-coating. The recient Newfound Woodworks newsletter does not recommend precoating.

When you precoat, you are obtaining a mechanical bond with the next coat of epoxy, unless you work in the green stage. Even then, you're boxing yourself in with a time element and you're never really sure if you waited too long to avoid any blush.

Raise the temperature before you glass and back it down during the process to avoid any air entrapment to be released and you'll be fine. Wet it out good and give it plenty odf time to soak into the glass and wood and then squeege the excess out to get a flat close contact of glass to wood.

If you really like mixing and applying epoxy and doing things twice, then by all means, pre coat the wood.