: I am working on a Artic Tern from Pygmy. I recently placed the fiberglass on
: the hull and have just put the second coat of epoxy on. My problem is,
: where I first butted the joints together for each of the panels, the wood
: color is lighter than the rest of the boat. I was under the impression the
: color would blend together with a couple coats of epoxy. Will this line of
: lighter wood always be there? is there anything I can do to fix this?
: Thanks

Pre-coating is probably the only way to keep this from happening. When you put the tape/resin on those joints, you pretty much block air from getting to the surface. The rest of the wood is still affected by it. Wood goes through an oxidation process. Even indoors there will be a variation if left sitting like that for any length of time. Take any piece of wood that has been just sitting around a while and sand it... You will get fresh wood and a new color.

Some woods are more affected by it than others, or perhaps just show it more. Redwood fades almost immediately, where Cherry takes years to change.

Although too late on this build, next time, sand your wood lightly and precoat with resin and squeegie off ALL the excess. It seals the wood and holds the color. Just remember that if this sits for a while, over several days, you will have to lightly sand all surfaces that will be epoxied for a good mechanical bond. For a good chemical bond you should start doing all your glassing within a very few days. Timing is much more important and manufacturers recommendations should be followed closely.

Over time, the color variation may become less, and less noticable between the scratches... Not to worry, the untrained eye will likely not see it, and the trained eye..... well... they did the same thing on their first boat, so they won't say much about it.

Rehd