I have just completed the hull on my first strip kayak. I did a poor quality job on joining the strips tightly along the centreline of the hull though, and needed to use epoxy filler more liberally than I wish. Now that I'm about to fiberglass, I wonder if I should consider putting an extra layer of glass along the centre line because I worry it's not as strong as it should be. Is this a good idea?

I have 6 oz cloth that I'll be using, and I have 9 oz tape. If I use the tape to reinforce, when and how should it be applied? Do I wet-out the glass cloth, then lay down the tape? Or is all this crazy and I shouldn't worry about reinforcing?

Tim

A bit of extra glass along the keel, especially at the ends of the boat, is helpful since that's where most of the abrasion from landing and launching will occur.

I wouldn't use tape for anything except bonding the hull and deck inside seam-it's difficult to get the edges to lie flush. For other narrow strips, I cut (preferably with a rotary cutter) strips from glass cloth. If you are going to put the strip around a curve (at the stems), bias-cut strips will conform better.