I think it is just areas with more or less epoxy, wheather it is due to soaking into the wood or not. Go ahead and glass the hull, you will end up using several fill coats.

You might try doing the inside of the hull 1st and see if it looks the same. It will give you practice.

Don't worry about it - the fact that you have done a seal coat before putting the Glass on means you will get a much better finish - and find it pretty easy to put the glass on.

what you see now is nowhere near what it will look like once you have done the glass and filled the weave with 2-4 light coats of epoxy.

If you have left it longer than a few hours between the wood-sealing coat and applying the glass, then a light snad all over is required, then a wash down with a damp cloth to remove any dust and you are good to go.

I assume you are talking about a seal coat made of epoxy thinned 50% with xylene?

If so you will probably want to do three passes at minimum. Thw wood really drinks that stuff in. After three coats it sorta stops going into the wood and you can, after it sets, do a quick sanding to get any of the last hairy bits knocked off. When you do your glassing you will find that you need far less resin than you would expect to get the cloth wet out nicely.

Lest anyone get the idea that seal coats are necessary before wetting out fiberglass, the videos I've seen of Nick Schade show him applying glass to bare wood -- and from what I have read, his work is museum quality.

If I were using stain (water-based only) on the okoume, though, I would do the staining as early in the build process as possible, and immediately seal it with epoxy.

Grant

As Old Yeller points out  it is not necessary - BUT For someone who is in-experienced with using epoxy, sealing the wood first will make it a lot easier to lay your glass - and it will use FAR LESS epoxy than doing it on a dry hull.  Less Epoxy is a lighter boat.

Lets face it, comparing a first (or even 2nd) time builder to Nick is not very fair!  He has a lot of experience working with Epoxy and glass and knows how to get a great finish.  You will not regret doing a very light coat on the hull before glassing.