Renn specifies 10-ounce woven fiberglass tape, which is apparently hard to find on the market. Since I'm not cutting tape from excess cloth, I used what I could buy ...4" wide 12-ounce glass tape. Since I had a choice, I chose biaxial.

I used a carbide scraper to take the worst of the ridges off, then used microballoon fairing mix to make a soft putty and filled the remaining surface texture. While I was at it, I used the putty to finish fairing the glass in the keel and the scarf joints.

Over the next two days, I finished up the glass preparation work by rolling a thin coat of epoxy over the entire inside of the hull, letting cure, and sanding lightly with 80-grit.

On the first attempt (part of it shown in the picture), I tried precutting the (5.1 ounce lightweight) Kevlar to fit, then tried following the instructions that I read somewhere ...precoat with epoxy, let cure enough to get a little sticky, then apply Kevlar and put a light coat of epoxy on it. Let's just say that putting any kind of material on partially cured epoxy is a, ummm, ...it's very difficult. After several rounds of sticking on, peeling off, sticking on (repeat), I finally got the Kevlar positioned right. Whew! Let's just put a light coat of epoxy on this stuff and go to bed ...my bad. The 'light' coat of epoxy released any bond the sticky epoxy underneath had to the Kevlar, and it became immediately apparent just where the Kevlar didn't want to lay flat, in spite of more maneuvering. Now what? Can't wait for the epoxy to partially cure again (the Kevlar cloth will be curing too you know). It wasn't sticking the way it was. I didn't think of cutting along the keel line to release the Kevlar from trying to make that sharp bend until later (my bad #2). I peeled the stuff off, stuck it in a trash can, and went to bed (grumble grumble).

Later, using the balance of the Kevlar that I bought, I tried cutting panels of cloth that would fit smoothly on the wood, no sharp bends. And this time, I didn't wait for the precoat to get sticky. Things went MUCH MUCH better this time, but alas, Kevlar likes to float (it is less dense than epoxy.) The good news is that I was able to get the Kevlar to wet out and lay fairly well on the wood. The bad news is that wood is never perfectly mirror smooth and neither are the boundaries with glass tape and what not. In several areas, the Kevlar seemed to 'bridge' the little defects and wanted to lift up. Fine. $70 worth of experience. Not wanting a 95%-good job instead of a 100% good job, I peeled the stuff off and tossed it. Nothing left but scraps now, so off they went into the trash also. No Kevlar for this boat.

HINTS: a) If Kevlar is going on the inside of the boat, you can probably make it work fine if you apply it to the CUT panels and the panels are faired and finished to be as smooth as possible. Note that cutting Kevlar with a saw, or trying to drill through it, isn't going to work. Plan ahead and skip the areas that may need cutting or drilling, like those pesky stitching holes near the bow. b) As Kiwi Les said, treat it like normal glass and squeegee the epoxy into it. I prefer rollers, but rollers pick up Kevlar WAY to easily to waste time messing with that ...use the squeegee. c) Then let it cure undisturbed until fairly green, then roll on a light fill coat. d) After a full cure, inject epoxy into any air pockets that stubbornly remained. e) Fiberglass over the top of the Kevlar to bury it. Note that had I know this up front, then I would've had Kevlar in the boat for sure. Note also that I did build a test panel ahead of time and it all worked fine. Also note that especially if you live in a cold climate that Kevlar should be installed so that none of the material is exposed (edges or surfaces that can get abraded). This is because Kevlar attracts water and will absorb it. When Kevlar with absorbed water freezes, it can expand and cause delamination. It works fine however, if you bury the edges in epoxied seams and lay regular fiberglass over the top of it.

The seam where the chine flats meet the bottom panel were pretty good as-is, but I filled the groove with wood flour/silica thickened epoxy first anyway. Most of it scraped back off with my fillet tool (round end of a mixing stick). The chine seam was glassed with a single layer of 12-oz biax for now. Both chine seams will be covered with an 8" wide strip of 10-oz cloth later, after the hull is assembled. Notice how the glassing stops short of where the 1/4" thick bow panels are scarfed on.

NOTES:
1. Flipping the bottom panel assembly was tricky ...it's heavier than it looks and it barely cleared the garage door when we turned it. We did it with two people, but I'd recommend more like 3 or 4. I removed the forms from the building jig prior to putting the bottom assembly back on it. It rests on the 2x4's that I clamped to it prior to flipping. (I thought it might want to spread out when I 'let it go' from the clamps, but it did not.)
2. I SurFormed and sanded the whole bottom side prior to the glassing. I also filled the groove along the bow with wood flour/silica thickened epoxy.
3. The biax on the keel doesn't need filling since the cloth on top of it smooths it out, however I will fill the biax on the chine with silica/epoxy prior to setting this assembly aside.