Dave

This is from Nick's book:

"The strength of fiberglass lies in the long fibers. If these fibers are broken, much of the strength is lost. By laying smaller layers of glass on the outside you are less likely to sand into the fibers and reduce the strength."

This is from Vaclav Stejskal's (One Ocean Kayaks) manual:

"In order to preserve the continuity of the strands in the main cover, the patch should always be put on top..."

The reason you want the abrasion patch (football and extra layers on the stems) on the outside is to avoid damaging and weakening your structural layer of glass. One good way to do it is to wet-out/squeegee your main layer of glass and wait until it's tack free. Then mask off the area you want the abrasion patch to cover and wet-out/squeegee that piece of glass up to the center of the tape. When your abrasion patch is still green and almost tack free, you can cut the glass off at the edge of the tape. I use a razor blade and cut as I lift the tape off the hull. It's a bit more work than just glassing it on and then sanding the frayed edges, but it gives you a nice clean edge without sanding into the structural layer. If you lay the abrasion patch as soon as the main glass isn't sticky anymore (or within ~12hrs.) you don't have to sand between layers, you'll get a good chemical bond.

Hope this helps,

Pedro

p.s. One other thing to avoid is trying to lay any large piece of glass on a sticky surface. It can be extremely difficult to get the cloth smoothed-out and wrinkle free.