This is one of those stupid moments ! It is pretty evident which side is which. I simply laid everything out and got the picture. Despite that I still glassed the wrong  side of one of the bow panels. I think the only harm I did was to add a layer of glass to the exterior. Perhaps that part of the boat will hit a rock some day and save me from getting a leak due to my extra 4 ounces of glass. 

hi mark,

am taking  a break to warm my hands up before going back to my cold garage. 

laying it all out as you did is the thing to do....and if it makes you feel any better, you have to do a lot worse to win an award here for being the first person to make this mistake.

fwiw i don't recall that anything with respect to the wood sides or hull or deck on the arctic hawk actually had to be a left side or right side (or an inside or outside).  they could all be reversed.....but once you made up your mind, you had to mark them and be consistent becuase you will treat outside and inside differently. (note, i do recall that with respect to the bottom panels and possibly the sides, that a foresection had to be properly mated with a rear section...this was done to ensure that all the joints did not line up around the boat which would have created a weakness)

piecing it together now that you have started....will tell you if you have any options left.

if, as you indicated, you ended up doing 4 oz cloth on what must now be an outside side of a panel, it's not a big deal and i suspect you will be the only person who will ever know.  in that case, simply think of it as an 'expedition layup'

that said, given that it is still a flat panel, i would say it probably is not that hard to sand it back  to the wood or the epoxy layer between the glass and wood with little risk of sanding through into the veneer if you do not want the extra layer of glass and it would make you feel better.   i say that assuming you have a good flat surface to put the panel on, a ROS sander and that you would be patient and not try to do it too fast.

best ....and i am sure you are doing a fine job.

H

Thanks, I just finished glassing all the panels and will put last last coat of epoxy on in a couple of hours. I am 99.9 % sure it is right. This boat is actullay fun to build in that the methods are completely different than the SW and Night heron I built. Really makes me think, a lot, which is a good thing. I can sand my error down when the time comes and your right, I will be the only one to know.

Not saying you should in this case, but it is extremely quick and easy to remove a layer of fiberglass by peeling it off while applying a bit of heat with a heat gun. It's also creates much less of a mess than trying to grind it down by sanding.

Old Yeller

I would second old yeller's comment.  Nick has a video on his website of stripping all the fiberglass of a kayak to re glass and refinish it if you want a little more reassurance.  I'm reasonably sure that you could procede as is.  The only thing is that with one pannel a bit stiffer in theory that could distort the overall shape but I do not think it would be that much.

Ed.

i think ed and old yeller's idea is probably easier than sanding.  ed....any chance you could paste the link to the video you are talking about.  wanted to take a look.....but could not find it.

found it:

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guillemot/blog/nick/refiberglassing_my_petrel

nice video.

Thanks all, very helpful information. Nice to know a mistake is generally so so big you can't corret it otherwise I think a lot of us might be in trouble. Mark

I used a heat gun to peal off the glass on the panel I glassed the wrong side on. Amazing how it works. It took me 10 minutes, if that, but would have taken an hour or longer to sand. I watched the video and it works just as shown by Nick. Have to do a little sanding to smooth the surface but I am really pleased with the result.