: Even though the joint may be stronger than the surrounding wood, wouldn't the
: joint create a stress point that would be different than if there were no
: joint in a long section of wood? The joint may not separate but maybe the
: wood might crack where the glue stops? Just trying to optimize were I
: place my joints. It sounds as though I shouldn't stress over this issue.

Do not hurt your head over scarf locations on the plywood panels. The chines create very rigid connections where stress will concentrate much more than at a flexible splice. The epoxy will eventually saturate all of the plywood surface plys and strengthen the wood at the surface where bending failures usually start. If you want assurance against panel failure, do an expedition glass lay up (cloth inside and out throughout). By the way, I feel the only place to even consider glass tape and no cloth on the panels is inside the compartments. S&G kayak construction is well proven and moving panel scarfs around will not be a factor.