: The last kayak I built I taped the joints on the inside. And glassed the
: outside. If I am reading correctly most/many of you just fillet the joints
: and skip the tape?

Generally, you would use tape unless you were going to cover the entire inside (or outside) with glass--which duplicates the tape.

If you use a fairly wide fillet you can probably eliminate the tape and/or glass on a lot of designs.

With 2-inch-wide glass tape, or strips of glass cloth cut that wide, resting on top of your fillet you are effectively spreading the attachment area over many more square inches. That gives a much stronger bond--but the fillet is what fills the gap and does most of the work in bonding the panels together.

I have heard that there are some people working with "fillets" made from polyurethane building cement compounds: Something like PL-400, or one of the other members of that family (PL-200 or PL-300, etc.). The stuff comes in caulking tubes and can be squeezed on with a caulking gun. Run a bead along the seam, smooth it over with a damp fingertips, and let it set. In a couple of hours it is securely holding the panels together without any tape or epoxy. Pull the wires, fill the holes, and paint the boat.

For a couple of dollars for supplies, and with a few scraps of plywood, you might try these attachemtn methods and let us know what you think of the options.

PGJ