: I'm currently working on my first stripper. I'm not done with the strips yet
: but will be soon. Is it neccessary to fill staple holes and blemmishes on
: the inside of the boat? Is this just done for cosmetics or is there other
: issues that epoxy and glass don't address? Thanks for your time.

It is not necessary to fill them, it is just done for cosmetic reasons.

The epoxy soaks into those holes and seals them perfectly, so your boat won't leak. If you only put one or two coats of resin on the interior glass you won't completely fill the weave of the glasss cloth, so you will have a bit of texture, which gives some additional friction that keeps you from sliding around. this is good. At the same time, the irregular surface reflections keep you from noticing the small staple holes. On the outside, where the surface is finished to a smooth finish the holes are visible, but not objectionable to most people. From a few feet away the boat looks flawless. It is only when someone point out the staple holes that anyone ever realizes what they are. In fact, when I describe how easy it was to make my boat, I have to purposely point to the staple holes and say something like "See these holes? They are from a stapler, which is all you need to assemble a boat like this."

It is a waste fo time to try to disguise them. You'll use 750 staples and have 1500 holes to play with on the outside alone. Even if you could do one a minute -- he hehe -- I'll let you do the math on how many hours that would be.

They are a non-issue. Leave them alone and go paddle the thing. If you really hate them you'll just have one more reason to build one more boat -- and this time you'll go with out staples, and with all the things you left out of the first one. After the third or fourth boat you'll realize how addictive this is, but you won't care.

PGJ