: My wife's Pygmy AT14 is pretty beat on the stern keel line. I'm
: planning a keel strip of Dynel fabric, epoxy and graphite. I've
: taped off the area (following Atlantic Kayak Tours method) and
: have sanded.

: My question is about the varnish - what happens if I don't get all
: the varnish sanded off, down to the epoxy? I can't tell from
: looking at it if all the varnish is sanded off. Will I have
: bonding problems if some is still there?

: Any other suggestions on this process will be welcome!

: Alan

It should be pretty obvious that you've sanded the varnish off, the gold/yellow shine is gone and the underlying epoxy is frosty white and noticably harder to your fingernail. I'd suggest using 60 grit to score the area where you've sanded the varnish off. I put 2" polyester cloth tape down down the keel line and a couple days didn't like how it looked and was surprised how easy it zipped off. Dynel soaks up epoxy like crazy leaving a coarse surface so it'll take a lot of epoxy to fair it in. There are better things for the bow stern than a layer of dynel.