: Fortunately, it's on the bottom of the
: boat where I won't see it when I'm paddling.

Jim,

As you've already guessed, yup, you went too far. I did the same thing on the deck of my Tern, where the center deck panels meet at the bow. I didn't take enough time to align their height relative to the narrow outboard deck shear panels and paid the price. I ended up "making lemonade", by cutting out about a 5 inch triangle of the whole top layer of the ply, right through the darker glue level and into the middle ply, and into this, put some inlay of ebony & ivory. It turned out great, but the additional 20 hours I spent doing the inlay has delayed the launch. I agree with the previous message that as long as the swath you've got isn't too extensive, it shouldn't affect the overall hull strength and could be ignored...BUT, get rid of that 80 grit! I only used 100 grit once, resulting in the deck problem above, and now only load 150 grit max, and indeed, went after drips & the like with 220. Good luck, and be very careful when aligning & stitching the deck panels. Cheers Chuck