Matthew:
I am building an Arctic Tern and a Coho, my first ever boats, at the same time. Yes, I am a fool. I had the same problems with the tape not wetting out, so I ended up only taping the inside butt seams. It worked FINE. My shop isn't wide enough to rotate pieces lengthwise, unles they are tortuously bent... multiple maneuvers, angles, lots of twisting, no problems. Both boats stitched up nicely, and consequently there are no outside tape seam discolorations on the hulls. As long as you give adequate time for the epoxy to set up before really flipping them around, you should be fine.

Ootek