New glassfibre tape on wooden Optimist

Preparation!

Sorry thats not very helpful...

make sure the area is well keyed by rubbing down with 8oo grit paper to remove all old resin and varnish/paint, clean with acetone to remove grease etc and then don't touch (if you have an oily wood you'll need to repeat the degreasing just before you start). I would be tempted to use Epoxy mix as per instructions. Pre wet the glass tape on a piece of board then transfer to deck seam and stipple well to remove all air bubbles.

Make sure its reasonably warm (16 - 20), the boat is dried out and you use good quality brushes. Resin will last about 10 minutes so don't mix too much - if it starts smelling strongly and goes hot or goey then throw away as its started to go off.

I might be tempted to fillet inside corners using epoxy and filler powder rather than use glass tape, but don't have experience of doing this, so not sure how well it would work.

Garry

A guy at my club built a wooden phantom. He expoxy filleted the joints. It was amazing strong and not too far off target weight. I would say epoxy filleting an Opi might be a tad of overkill though. The tape/glass option is probably cheaper and lighter in the long run....

I would not worry about blending it in if you are worried about weight. Wooden boats that are taped have got visible tape....fact of life!

I think taped joints look quite good on a wooden boatm and they need not be unsightly if done carefully.