Hugo,
Thanks for the advice. Yes, hull and deck are completely joined and epoxied/taped together. Actually the more I think about doing this way, the more I think it will be better. Since I built my deck in three sections, the center/cockpit section could not be taped on the inside. Now that I have taped the deck/hull joints and glassed the hull I can glass the decks. When I cut through for the cockpit hole the deck in that area will remain rigid whereas if I didn't glass first the deck could want to flex slightly out of plane. I'll be trying to glass this weekend and do the cockpit/coaming next weekend and should be finished totally by the end of the month.

Thanks,

Tony

: Do you have the deck and hull joined together ? Last year I met a guy who
: built a Guillemot L, and he cut the hatches prior to glassing the deck, I
: believe the deck and hull were not joined yet. After doing the
: fiberglassing and later on joining both deck and hull, the deck shape had
: changed slightly. With the new curve, the already cut hatches didn't fit
: correctly and were leaking, so he was using duct-tape to keep them in
: place during the trip.
: I'm not an expert in kayaks (hey, I'm just finishing my first S&G), but you
: may want to probably get more opinions before bypassing steps, and make
: sure that the deck shape remains the same.

: Hugo