Lee,
The instructions I've been following call for 6 oz cloth for the exterior and only at the cockpit for the interior. I had thought about doing the whole inside with 4 oz but pretty much threw that out for taped interior/6 oz cockpit only and 6 oz exterior. I am using luan in lieu of Okoume which may be better suited to glass the entire interior foregoing any interior tape. I also assumed that the interior work should be good but I wasn't going to fret over any raised areas of tape as long as the integrity was OK. Didn't see any real reason to sand/feather the tape edges on the hull interior. I could be wrong to think that. The instructions also call to leave the stitches in but I plan to snip the exterior portions at least and may even due the tab filleting filling the space left by stitches later as suggested earlier on in the thread. I like the idea of doing small tab fillets then snipping and removing the stitches and following up with a large fillet over everything and then tape with cloth in the cockpit area. BTW, 170 lbs. and I hope to use the kayak 2-3 times a month for about 6-7 months per year. That doesn't seem like an excessive amount of use but I am a begineer and probably will not be very delicate on launch and return.

Thanks,

Tony

: Tony, if the exterior is glassed with 6oz cloth you might consider
: eliminating tape and just putting in 6oz cloth on the bottom panels to
: about an inch above the fillets. Using 3"wide 9oz tape is one easy
: operation but the tape often develops bubbles with prominant edges and
: still leaves unreinforced the cockpit area. There are lots of s&g hard
: chine hulls with only 3" tape but if you're averaged size and use the
: boat a lot then glassing the cockpit is a necessity in my book. If the
: cockpit is getting glass then dealing with all those raised/rough selvated
: edges in the tape still requires time and effort. What I've done with tape
: is allowed the fillet to get firm then I'd lay the tape down. It just
: seems that by the time a person puts in tape AND associated cloth that a
: lot of the tape is redundant and if cloth isn't put on the panels in the
: compartments then those unreinforced panels are obviously prone to
: developoing cracks with the 9oz tape at the fillets. If cloth is put in
: and further reinforcent was desired then strips of 4oz cloth would be more
: than enough on top of the 6oz for a LOT less weight and mess.