: 2. is it too late to go back and lay down some extra cloth along the keel?

Nope, you're fine. You can lay a second layer of cloth over the first. Just make sure the surface of the first layer is smooth before you start. Make sure you use the tape trick around the edges of the second layer to eliminate a frayed edge ... if you don't, you'll have a lot-o-sanding and scraping of the frayed edge to look forward to when you fair it in. Watch for bubbles.

: 3.there are still some spots that to the casual eye look fine, but if you get : right down on the boat and hit the light at an angle, you can see some of the : glass fibers. Is the strength going to be acceptable, or do I have a : structural problem?

You may be simply seeing the build up of resin over the glass fibers. In other words, the resin has completely filled the cloth but is of a uniform thickness that follows the texture of the cloth.

You will prolly see areas where a few strands of cloth didn't completely wet out for some reason. They'll show up as white.

You have no structural problem.

: 4. It's pretty rough and wavy looking at the moment. I didn't get the hang of
: the squeege until the last fill coat. And as the epoxy would start
: setting, I didn't get good "flow" so that it would smooth out as
: nice as I'd have liked. The result is a rough uneven surface. I'm assuming
: that it will look much beeter after I sand it smooth. I also have some
: drips that will need to be sanded out. My understanding is that that
: situation is pretty normal, right?

Yep ... normal. The operative words here are ... sanding and scraping!

: 5. There are some spots where it probably wouldn't hurt to put one more skim
: coat on the boat, but it's getting hard to tell if it's the weave I'm
: filling, or just an uneven surface with all the epoxy. Since it's that
: questionable, I'm thinking that after sanding, 4 to 6 coats of varnish
: will fill any remaing weave that might actuall exist. Is that correct, and
: if so, is it acceptable?

I'd wait till I started sanding the whole boat to decide if I wanted to add more epoxy. It will be easier to do on a smoothed surface and you'll put much less on. Don't try to fill the weave with varnish.

You'll prolly find varnishing a whole other learning situation! Not tough, but picky.

I finished my Outer Island about 6 weeks ago. You're gonna love it! Allow for extra time at gas stations, restaruants, your put in and take out etc. for tons of questions and comments. Keep your eyes on the road lest you be distracted by all the thumbs up from other drivers. Don't get paranoid when you find other drivers pacing beside you to oggle your OI.

Later!

Ken