: Once I have the boat pieced together, I will take
: the whole thing apart to bevel the panels and make minor changes to make
: the fits tighter.

don't bevel the panels. that will only make sharp edges OR if you sand them round, you will sand thru to the inner core which usually brings attention to building irregularities.

Instead, just round off the inner edge a little so there can be friction betw the panels when stitched, and then fill the gap with thickened epoxy - and THAT ONLY gets rounded off to give a less sharp edge as well as a clean edge to the panel.

filling the gap is easy using a large syringe with large needle all in the cheapest caulk gun (non ratchet type important) and just drag the needle along in the gap betw the panels. Glue right under the wires - as you can reach with the needle. On wire removal, 80% will come right out and the other 20% will come out in a fraction of a second with a typical soldering gun heating the wire. Touch up the inconsistencies where you couldn't reach under the wire, etc.

if you are going to stain the yak like i did, stain and seal the panels before even cutting - so quick and easy to do in large 4x8 chunks like that. then you can even spill coffee or beer or epoxy on the panel any time during the building process and it is easy to clean - works for me as i/m quite a messy type guy. oh yeah, sanding edges does not work so well w/ stained panels - so 1 more reason for filled gaps.

if you use other filler techs that are harder to control, mask tape 1/8" each side of the edges and then fill.

(do not glue the panels 1st as there will be colour inconsistencies along the gap where the clear epoxy stops the filled(coloured) epoxy from going. )

good luck

mick

good luck!

-mick