I have a 16 ft bass boat. I replaced most of the center deck with exterior grade plywood sealed with epoxy. The cuts I made were not perfect, so there is a gap between the new wood and the old wood all the way around. I was planning to cover the gap with fiberglass cloth and epoxy. However, once the epoxy dries on the fiberglass cloth it becomes brittle, and I can simply punch through it with a fingernail so I opted to leave out the epoxy in the seam area and only put epoxy on each side of the seam where wood is. My dad was feeling the cloth yesterday and he said the fiberglass at each seem felt soft. He recommended stainless steel plating all the way around to go over the seam. I hate to do that because I worked so hard to waterproof and I would have to drill holes in the wood. Any other ideas? Any additives to make the epoxy less brittle? Leave it as is? The seam can be as big as 3 inches or as little as half an inch. I plan on putting 20oz boat carpet over top of everything glued down with epoxy.
