Don,
Glad to hear you figured out a way to do the deck to hull fillet/taping. I was in the same boat (pardon the pun) several weeks ago and your story very closely mimiced my experience right down to the epoxy hairdo. My worst areas were at the extreme ends where I also had a hardened tape mess. My two best allies were a stick with a paint brush for pushing a thickened fillet down the seam and rolling the tape and pushing it with the brush down the seam. I managed to run fillets and tape at arms length without the brush contraption. The first seam was horrible and each subsequent one went better and was cleaner. I still have to go back and do some stick sanding but nothing too hateful. I was able to set the boat on it's side in the cradles and that helped immensely.

If I build another stitch and glue I will strongly consider a sheer strip to fasten the deck to the hull (like CLC boats). If not I will probably try the epoxy saturated roll of tape trick.

I still have my interior cockpit seams to do once I cut the cockpit hole so I may try the saturated tape trick there even though the reach is not as hateful and the access hole is bigger.

Good luck on the rest of your project.

--Tony

: Thanks for all your tips.

: I finished taping the inside hull-to-deck seam today. It went much better
: than yesterday. And, I'll do the next boat even better.

: I also appreciated the fix-it ideas. I used the knife-on-a-stick for part of
: it, and the dremel tool-on-a-stick for other parts.

: Thanks again. You people really make a wonderful difference.

: Don