Dan,
What you have is normal. Just turn the hull over and fillet the seam with very thick epoxy mix. No tape needed. -Wes

I was hoping you would say that. Thanks Wes

I was rereading your Merganzer blog. One of the issues I was having was that the staples didn't hold well to the particle board forms. And I'm not sure how well they would have held up to Eric's clamps. Screwing seemed to split the forms too easily. There's another company that sells kits with forms that have a clamping groove. I like that idea. I'm not sure I'm ready to cut my own forms quite yet, but I am planning another boat pdq and hopefully I will be able to fit the strips to the forms tighter that I did on this boat

I used forms that I cut from 9mm okuome plywood that I had on hand and two that I cut from 1/2" fir plywood. The staples held pretty well in the okuome but not in the fir. I've never used particle board forms. I bought plywood forms for my next boat from Peter Schultz of Classic Boat Kits in Ontario. Michael Vermouth at Newfound Woodworks in New Hampshire sells forms with clamping grooves. I think he will make forms for just about any design you want.

Ok. It's on there for good 

http://picasaweb.google.com/danielthaler/ShearwaterHybrid#5431570428524525778 

Good work Dan. It's starting to look like a real boat!

and with any luck it'll float. ;-)