Hi all

Got a question for you S & G folks or anyone with some insite:

I believe I've heard some of you mention using glass/resin to glue up butt-joints on your boats instead of the plywood butt-blocks that are on some plans. If or when you used the glass cloth for the joint reinforcement, how much cloth ( oz. + layers ) did you use rather than a 4mm plywood square? Inside only or inside/outside?

The question is in regards to an incident with my Plywood Rob-Roy canoe ( Glen-L plans ). In the process of stitching the seams up and bringing the boat together, the bowing of the ply. cracked and eventually led to a failure of the joint on one of the bottom sheets. I used only one layer of 3.25oz. Satin weave cloth and the joint was 4 days cured. My idea was to eliminate the big block of wood inside the boat and only wanted it to stay firm until I glassed the outside and then inside of the boat. I'm taking it all apart ( cutting the wires to lay it all flat again ) and want to redo the joint. I'm figuring that the 3.25oz cloth wasn't enough to take the pressure of the bend, but not sure if I should go ahead and try two layers or three, or just clean off the glass and use the wood blocks. I'm planning on tinting the epoxy on the inside which would hide the woodgrain, but want to do a bright finish outside. If I use a layer of glass outside, will I get a color variation from the patched area to the surrounding area? All four panels have a saturation coat of epoxy, inside and out, then lightly sanded with 80grt on the ROS. They will be glassed at different times, possibly a week apart. The boat is being constructed for a building project that is being posted on Glen-L's site so I want it to be as clean as possible.

Curious....... Your thoughts???

Rehd