dave, thanks for telling about your oops, these are the posts that help me figure out where enough is enough,or too much. When I built a coho, I installed the glass tape inside the cockpit between the two butt joints on the deck, before glassing the deck I poured a few tablespoons down the inside deck/hull seam intending that to hold the boat together enough to finish glassing the deck and outside seam then cutting hatches out to get access to the rest of the joint to finish the inside seam with tape. I figure the hull/deck seam past the bulkheads still needs more strength than what a fillet and outside glassing provides. Think of dragging a loaded kayak over the deck of another kayak as in an all-in type of rescue.

On second thought doesn't the instructions say reinforce the joint as far as you can reach with a stick? In your posting you mention the crack occured after the tape reinforcement. How thick was the epoxy fillet past that point, or was there one? Did the crack occur next to the fillet? In the fillet?

A friend back in S.F. built a standard pygmy, as was his nature he overbuilt it in a satisfyingly crude manner. After seeing him hoist the boat on his shoulder,with an extra 40 lbs of stuff in it, plop it on the rocky beach then paddling his 225 lbs self out through the surf, I thought..hmmm maybe he didn't over due it. On the last leg of that day paddle he hoisted a sail outside the Golden Gate bridge and flew under it with the swells.

Just out of curiosity, how flexible is the bottom of your boat? I was surprised by the one I made, even though the bottom center panels of the one I built had two layers 4oz on the outside,and the interior had two layers of 4oz to the second bottom panel it pops in a bit paddling over submerged logs. Nothing broke or cracked , it just flexed more than expected.

have fun paddling