: Folks,

: At the risk of exposing my lack of knowledge about kayak building I
: have what I think is a pretty basic question. I am just
: finishing glassing the inside of my hull and will soon move on
: to joining the hull & deck. I have read a lot of posts and
: books about methods of applying the tape to the inside seam and
: the quality issues and mess that accompanies that operation.
: What is the downside of cutting out my hatches before joining
: the two pieces? Will that cause the deck to flatten out and lose
: its shape? It would seem that being able to use the hatch
: opening to complete the inside joint would make it much easier.

: I welcome all thoughts, please keep your laughter to a minimum.

If you have glassed inside and outside of the deck before cutting out the hatches you should be fine.

Maybe not such a good idea if you are planning on glassing the outside after joining the two halves as I do. It is not so much that the deck will warp, I would be more concerned that the hatches will warp if they are only glassed one side.

Et