A quarter is bigger than I use.

The reason to round the edges is to keep the glass from lifting off and getting bubbles. For 6 oz glass a nickel is plenty and a dime will work for 4 oz glass.

Laszlo

Thanks for the swift answer, and thanks for the information on your Duck build, I used your method for glassing the interior of my C18 and it was very easy to follow.

 So, using the nickel radius I will still sand through the ply into the epoxy, and that is ok. correct?

Sanding thru the plywood into the epoxy sounds like a bad idea to me. The bow of my Shearwater 17h has about a 3/8" radius. pointy yes, but  no epoxy showing and I had no issues with wrapping the glass around it (all 3 layers).

Dan

No, you do not want to sand thru your plywood into the epoxy.  At the bow and stern the absolue maximum radius is the thickness of your plywood and you should be somewhat less.  As long as you lay the glass on the bias, you will be able to wrap it OK.

Paul

I didn't cut through the plywood let alone get into epoxy rounding over my bow, take time to smooth out the glass on the bias after making a nice round over and itwill work fine.

Jason

 I was just thinking that I had a couple pcis of my bow radius, here are links below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/m6Yetwp9j5d-V2rxSGnTAg?feat=directlink

 http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/cw0ewwIRv0W_UXLHo0gUvg?feat=directlink

Enjoy, Jason

Thanks everyone, the answers were very helpful.

Not sure what the diameter of a 'quarter' is (I'm from Australia or someplace). But, I kept my stem and stern relatively sharp, and cut strips of 'glass on the bias, and it laid fine around the curve.

My CH17 looks just like Jason's.  In fact, when I loaded that first picture, I thought I had clicked into *my* web album.  

I guess I missed the comment about the diameter, I just sanded mine "roundish", and carried on...  Looks smashing.

One side note though, for what its worth...

About 4 years ago, I met two guys in CH17's that had just portaged back from being out on Georgian Bay. (Massassauga Prov. Park).   I complimented them on their (bright finished) boats, and they showed me the result of a crash they had the day before.

The bay (Spider Bay) was very windy, and the chop had gathered up to a good 3 ft.  One fellow had rolled and done a wet exit. When the second fellow came over to assist with the roll over and re-entry, the second boat speared the first, leaving a 3 inch triangular gash in the front storage area.  They had since filled it with candle wax, and patched it with duck tape, but it goes to show you haw strong the very tip of the bow can be, and how exposed the open panels can leave you.

If the builder of that boat is on this forum, Id love to hear from you... 

Donald