: Removing that extra resin was good. Stop now while you are ahead.

: If you have gotten the surface smooth, STOP. Adding more resin has not been
: shown to increase strength. If you want it stronger, add glass.

: Think of the resin as a glue which holds the glass in place. Conveniently, it
: is viscous enough to fill in the weave pattern of the glass--if you use
: enough--but that added plastic isn't adding any significant strength. If
: you have some resin left over, use it for another project, or save it for
: future repairs.

: That's about it. Oh, and it restores the glossy look you just sanded away.

: Unless you have areas which are showing glass, it is time to get on with
: construction. Join the deck and hull, and that area smooth and go
: paddling. After a month or so of paddling a matte-finished boat, resand to
: remove any dings, and them put on your varnish.

: If you want to overbuild, wait for a month of battle scars to show up on the
: hull, then (before you varnish) cover those areas with another layer of
: glass. Here you can indulge in adding more resin, since you seem to enjoy
: that process Once you've got an extra layer of glass over the areas you
: seem to ding up. Then you can varnish. Two coats of most varnishes will
: give you all the UV protection you'll need for a few years, but many
: people add more coats.

: Why not try this on some other project instead of using your nearly-completed
: boat as a crash-test dummy. You are in a very good spot right now. Until
: you have a good technique for adding resin without getting runs, I'm
: worried that you'll just make more work for yourself. If you have done 5
: coats, and each one had runs, The learning curve on this usually goes from
: many runs to a few runs to almost no runs to (finally, after some
: experience) just one run or two. I'd say the odds are against you getting
: a run-free coat in the next two tries. That means two days of coating, and
: two days of sanding--and it won't make things any prettier, or stronger.

: The thinner you apply resin the less mass there is to build up heat--and heat
: is what accelerates the curing. So a slow hardener is bad news with thin
: coats of resin unless you are working in a very warm environment. So heat
: up your workplace, or buy that faster hardener.

: If you want to try an experiment (please, don't do this on the boat!)
: try heating up your resin before you mix it with preheated hardner. Soaking
: the bottles of each in a bath of very hot tap water for an hour or so can
: get them up to well over 100 degrees. They'll cool to aomewhere over 90 as
: you mix them and pour them into the roller tray, but even so, they'll go
: on hotter and should setup faster.The hotter resin mix will also be
: thinner, so you just might apply a thinner coat of resin when working with
: it hot, as well. The problem is that the higher temp may cause the resin
: to "kick" before you get it applied. So watch for that.

: hehehe. Yeah, but when you are working in summer, in Miami's noonday sun,
: with the temperture hovering well over 90, you really need something
: formulated to give you a bit of working time.

: Good luck with this, or just forget it and go on to the next step.

: PGJ

Etienne is telling me the same thing as you are Paul, just with not so many words. Thanks for your extensive response. At times I'm a bit slow, and need those extra words. I managed to stay out of the glass while sanding down the fills (except for one tiny spot that's being covered by the outer seam tape, so I do know what it looks like when I've gone too far!). So I'll do as you both suggest, not making un-neccessary work for myself and move on. We'll plan on taking them out a few times to play(!) and access if there is a need for another layer of glass on the bellies before applying varnish. It's gonna be a tough wait. The matte finish sure isn't very pretty to look at!

Also like Pedro's thoughts on pre-promoting the epoxy for thickening. I might give that a try for my hull fill-coats.

Thanks for all your help guys,
Todd