Are the strips that are glued in your cockpit used to keep your fiberglassing
: material from draping down into the cockpit? And how are they glued
: on,,with hot glue? Are they then cut off after you finish epoxying,,, with
: a saw? Thanks.

The strips glued across (with carpenters glue) were originally supposed to serve two purposes. 1) to stop the glass from draping down 2) to help me keep the work aligned properly. I think I read about it in a book on stripping. I did not run the strips from left edge to right edge as the book recommended because it was such a pain to get two edges bevelled and the length right. I figured glueing in an odd support piece would do as well. That said, I have now cut them out (with a Japanese pull saw) because I want to be able to put a piece of plastic on the inside of the hull to catch drips, and I couldn't get my hand in to do this. I will just have to be careful!