Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Sheer clamps and bottom panel sanding - January 25, 2015

Today I used my Rigid random orbital sander to sand smooth the scarf joints I created making the sheer clamps yesterday.  Then I  sanded the edges of the bottom panels down to the lines I drew to delineate their edges. Here are pictures taken from both the bow and stern of the kayak.

This is a close up of the bow, you can compare it with a post of few days ago where I showed it after just being cut out and see how I have sanded it down to the line.

I am rethinking the fiberglass tape on one side of the butt joints of the side and bottom panels I'm trying to do in building this kayak. This picture shows my dilemma.

These are the sides opposite where the fiberglass tape was applied. I'm going to fill the crack you can see with a mixture of wood flower, cell-o-fill and epoxy mixed to a mustard like consistency and use it to strengthen this bond. This side is going to be the outside of the hull and I think this will strengthen the joint enough so I can work with the panels without  the joint failing prior to getting the fiberglass cloth on the outside of the hull to really hold it all together. (This is probably a good argument for learning to create a good scarf joint with the blank okoume panels, time will tell.)