> I carefully layed out my panels and coated the scarf joints with
> east system epoxy thickened with cotton fibre to the consistancy of
> honey,I then stapled the scarf together and left it to dry.I returned
> 24 hours later and removed the staples when I lifted my first 17 foot
> panel it cracked right beside the scarf where the epoxy ended.what
> did do wrong or was i just not careful enough lifting the panel?any
> help would be appreciated.

You didn't say what your panel was made of. I have had similar problems with lauan (sometimes sold as meranti). The problem is that the strengh of the panel is in the outer skin, and the core is only a filler material. When you cut a scarf, you are only bonding the two cores.

You said the panel cracked "right beside the scarf" so it sounds to me like your problem is with the material you are using.

My solution was to clamp a 1" x 18" piece of pine across the scarf with two clamps on each side of the joint. This allowed me to move the panel around without placing stress on the scarf. After I assembled the boat, I placed fiberglass cloth across the scarf to bond the skins.

Hope this helps.