: I used B&C on a few boats.
: Though the cove is a handy 'trough' for glue, there were some
: drawbacks to B&C for me.
: The way the B&C strips lie around a curved form depends on the
: radius of the cove/bead, and the width of the strip. It was
: pretty easy for me to expose a bit of the cove surface.
: Also, the thin edge of the cove was easily damaged, even though I
: had a good large shop in those days.
: And, sanding tended to expose the joint and make it seem wider than
: it was.

: After glassing, most of these problems were not very obvious, and
: certainly didn't compromise the strength of the boat.
: Like you, I haven't had very good luck using fillers to hide
: problems, but if you do a search here I think you will find
: fillers that have worked for others.

: When you are glassing, just be aware that you may need to take some
: care to avoid air bubbles at the problem spots. This may be an
: instance where a 'sealer coat' of epoxy (before glassing) may
: help.

: Nobody but you will notice, really! Just get that thing headed
: toward the water. ;-)

Robert, I am very close to your skill level as I am just ready to attach the deck and hull of my first boat and have the hull stripped on my 2nd. boat. On my first boat I used B&C - self aligning, glue trough, etc. all sounded good. I first discovered that if the B&C isn't perfectly centered you will have problems. My second discovery was if each strip thickness isn't within a few thousandths you will never keep the B&C centered. My 3rd discovery was it is very difficult to go around sharp corners. I am sure I had the same gap problems as you. I saved the sawdust from my ROS and used it to thicken some epoxy to fill the holes. When it was set I lightly sanded the filled spots then sealed the hull with epoxy and glassed. It came out looking fine except the fill was a darker color than the strips. The deck strips fit much better as it was flatter but I did have a few holes to fill at the bow and stern. This time I mixed epoxy with ROS dust and West Systems #406 colloidal silica at about a 35/65 ratio. The color came out much closer to the strip color.

I have made every mistake there is to make on my first boat and so far I have been able to find a way to correct them. Don't be shy about asking how to fix things, we have all been there. Those beautiful boats we see photoed on this site are in our future. We just need to keep asking these guys how they did it:)))

The 2nd boat hull is planed and fitted strips, no B&C. I bought a $4 plane from Harbor Freight that fits into the palm of my hand and it works perfectly. Fitting strips with a plane is so much easier and the quality so much better that I will never use B&C again.
Randy