Hello Rick,

: 1. My deck only has 2 fill coats, and will need more before the deck is
: "done" per se. Will I be better off doing those fill coats now -
: before I do the hatches - or after? I was originally going to do it after,
: so that I could get the exterior seam taped and work the final few fill
: coats while the boat was a single entity, rather than two halves. But, it
: seems easier (in regards to hatches) to do the fill coats first. What do
: you think? Six in one, half dozen in the other?

I did the fill coats before cutting the hatches. Even then you will be doing more fill coats to the side of boat to make the seam look better after the two halves are put together.

: 2. This one is the more concerning of the three. I'm going to do the Leidy
: Lid hatches. I don't know if I'm having trouble with my eyes, interpreting
: 2 deminsional photos, just looking at it from a weird perspective, or
: what, but when I examine the text and photos on Ross's web site, something
: isn't clicking (nothing wrong with his web site - it's FANTASTIC). I'm
: having trouble with the part about the weather stripping while making the
: fiberglass piece that the hatch will sit down on. What would really help
: is to see a cross section of it - anybody got one? From the perspective of
: a cross section, is the glass taking a little "dip" so that the
: weather stripping can be adhered to it and the top of the weather strip
: stay even with the underside of the deck? Maybe a tad higher for the sake
: of a good tight seal? Did that make any sense at all?

I tried to e-mail a drawing to you Rick because I'm not sure how to post the sketch.

: 3. The edges of the hatch and the deck where the hatches were cut... are they
: just coated with epoxy and varnish? I haven't seen any references to them
: being glassed on the edges, but common sense says that they must at
: minimum be sealed with epoxy.

The edges should be sealed with epoxy then you can apply a little thickened epoxy as well. Hope this helps, Kurt