: I sure wish I had known about the masking method when I glassed the
: top of my previous boat.
: I had all kinds of fibers that pulled away from the overhang which
: took me forever to feather in
: to the coats of epoxy.

: I will use this wherever possible on my current build (Shearwater
: 17 Hybrid)

: Mike

Mike, when you are cutting the glass at the tape, some people fold the tape back and cut along the hull. This avoids the possibility of cutting into the glass under the hull epoxy.

I prefer to cut down onto the hull. I get a very clean cut that way. If you are using 4 oz cloth you need very little pressure to cut the glass cleanly. The resin beneath should be quite well cured by the time you are doing this and should resist the blade of the utility knife very adequately, but for the first couple of feet it is worth going slowly and pulling the tape off slowly so that you get the feeling of how much pressure is required for a clean cut. You don't want to compromise the cloth on your hull by using more pressure than is necessary.

Six oz cloth needs a little more pressure, but not much.

If you cut the cloth just as the resin starts to go off you won't be trying to cut through hardened resin and you will need little force to get a clean cut.

I cut about a yard of cloth and slowly pull off the tape. Then another yard, etc. If you pull the tape slowly you won't
get a snag on a thread that hasn't cut right through, you will see it start to pull and you can cut it the rest of the way, then just push the snag down with your fingertip. If it is still soft enough it will stick down nicely.

To avoid using too much pressure I use a utility knife blade without the knife. If you just hold the blade in your fingers and use the point you get a more delicate feel for the force you are exerting.

To much information for an easy task. I will shut up now

Et