Filling cracks

I used epoxy thickened with micro balloons to fill the cracks between the cedar strips on the hull. I found that when I had the consistancy I wanted, the mixture would not stick to the wood. Also, the strips are so narrow that by the time I had forced the mixture into one crack, the two strips on either side were covered as well. So I decided to put a coat of clear epoxy on the hull first and then do the filling. This worked quite well. I tried to use a syringe (various sizes) to inject the mixture into the crack but this did not work so I ended up forcing it in with popsicle sticks. I didn't clean the hull off as well as I should have and so there was more sanding than I expected. The other undesirable result was that the mixture sunk into the cracks as it cured and so now I have to fill many of them over again! You can see some of the dark spots in the pictures. When I did the second hull I was much more careful about scraping the hull after the mixture was partially set.

I used short pieces of cedar strip to make a wider landing area on two of the formers (bulkheads) for the top which is in 3 parts. The under side of the top sections were coated with epoxy as was the top of the strip used to attach the top and sides, and the tops of each former. Then I spread thickened epoxy on the top of the attachment strip and the tops of the formers before installing the top. I used nails at each end to locate the top before I started so I used these to set the top down in the right spot. I flipped the boat over and set it on top of one of the eight foot sections of 3/4 plywood I used for the original lay out (I put the top on in 2 eight foot sections, and 1 two foot section) , then I used metal strip and screwed into the plywood. SInce teh mixture sometimes gets runny before it sets I thought this action would stop it running away from the surfaces I was hoping to join. The epoxy seemed to extrude from the outside joint in a fairly consistant manner and when I took the 3/4 plywood off the following day the results were promising.
It is supposed to be sunny here on Sunday so I will take the boats out and use a router to trim off the tops flush with the sides. I will also start to sand the epoxy mixture on the strips again, hopefully for the last time!

This is not much of a picture, I will take better ones outside this weekend. I tried standing on the deck and it did deflect when I was not over a former but there were no cracking or snapping noises! I expect that just putting a heel in the center would break something but.......just don't do that.