: : A lot of people use squeeges but I like a roller.
:

: One advantage of a squeegee is you are less likely to over fill the glass with epoxy. With carefull squeegeeing you can force out excess resin, causing the glass to be closer to the wood and thus stronger. Using a roller, the glass has tendency to float on a layer of excess resin. I use a roller or brush to apply resin to the sides where it is hard to apply it with the squeegee. I then squeegee off the excess and throw it away.

:

I agree; I have also found that with a roller the epoxy seems to foam on the glass and does not wet out as well I believe the absolute minimum epoxy must be used to wet out the glass and as you point out the weave can be filled later with a second coating.
When doing the sides I have a trick of using some foam cord of the type used in the construction industry in concrete joints (backing cord), about 10mm dia tacked to the chine with a few pins. This allows a small dam to form and the epoxy seems to filter down the side without adding to the layer on my floor. Once the sides are almost done I pull the pins and remove the foam cord.

If absolute strength and minimal weight is essential then the only method is to vacume bag the hull. The surplace epoxy will then be taken out into the bleeder cloth through the peel ply and as close to a perfect hull can be achieved.
A home vacume set up is not that far fetched. Mine uses an old aircon pump driven by a 2hp electric motor.

Regards from this side of the pond!
Rob