Joining the deck & hull

These pictures ended up in reverse order. Before joining the hull and deck I used a 30" sanding board with 50 course paper to level the sheerline on the hull and deck. This was recommended by Joe in the plans and works really well. Then I sealed the edges of the hull & deck with 2 coats of epoxy just in case anything is ever exposed. They fit together much easier than I expected when my son Ben and I taped them together. It was great to step back and finally see what looked like a kayak nearing completion.Here are the tools of the trade for joining them together. Small brush, brush on the end of a 4 fts stick and flashlight. I soaked the roll of 2" glass tape in epoxy and started it in the middle of the coaming and rolled them to each end. It really worked well expect on the first one where I didn't measure exactly how much I had on each end and ended up with to much on one side and to little on the other. I was able to simply bury the extra in the ends and add an extra roll on the other side. Live and learn.

Here are the rolls of tape ready to put into a yogert cup of epoxy. Laying the kayak on it's side works very well and I didn't have a problem sticking my head into each hatch. Here is the kayak taped with the inside completed. Next steps are to strip off the tape, clean off any glue, sand or plane the edge, add filler to any cracks and repeat the process on the outside. Now I'm getting anxious to go paddling.