Dan, good advice to clamp or somehow brace the ends while stitching so that they don't flop around too much. I'll do it.

As for the stain, I plan to do what I saw Nick doing in the pic -- touch up with a Q-tip. I stained the skinny deck sheer panels on my double, and didn't have too much trouble with retouching them after sanding the sheer. I also stained them way too light--depending on the viewing angle, after all the layers of epoxy and varnish that followed, you can't tell that they are darker. Anyway, touch ups on those went pretty well.

The hull I've stained for this Tern 14, however, is very, very dark. It is altogether possible that the retouched areas will show more. But I really wanted a darker hull to help set it apart from the other Pygmys, and just to add some interest value. So I decided to try it.

AND, I have been banking on this: because I'm staining only the hull, the sanded part of the sheer edge on the deck side will look just fine as soon as I re-clear coat it (which I will do before glassing). That leaves only the hull sheer panel to touch up with stain. I know I am going to paint an accent stripe down the hull at the sheer line. So, I don't think it is going to show at all in any event. My accent stripes so far have been anywhere from 1/2" to about 3/4" in the center of the kayak, tapering off to narrow stripes on each end. But even with the tapering, whatever gets sanded off and retouched probably will not show much, or I can widen the accent if needed.

The downside is that, if I match the stain perfectly and it looks terrific, I will be covering it up with the paint for the accent stripe and no one will know how perfect it turned out! The upside is that, until I do the accent stripe, or if I change my mind and don't do it, it won't be an eyesore of any kind.

So that's the plan. And we all know about the best laid plans . . .