Absolutly! A light coat of epoxy on the raw wood before glassing will fill the grain of the wood fairly well - which will result in a much better application of the glass.

Just leave it until it is just touch-dry before applying the glass, usually only a couple of hours.

I did that for my first S&G boat but no my last 4 boats and have had no problems. The trick is to make sure that there are no indentations, cracks, etc. before applying the glass. That can be done with a snader, some epoxy/woodflour putty and a putty knife.

The reason I don't do it is time and weight. In the time that it takes to precoat and wait until it cures enough to apply the glass, I can apply the glass and the first fill coat.The weight aspect is that unless you are careful with the precoat, you could add excessive epoxy and increase the weight. Not by much, but some people are obsessive about sanding and varnishing, I'm odd about minimizing weight and epoxy consumption.

So it's up to you how you go. Both work and both have their advantages

Have fun,

Laszlo

I will think about both ideas and decide which will work best for this build. Still 105 degress where I am at so I have time to think about it, can't really do  any epoxy work in this heat. It does give me time to fill every little crack and dent becuase I can't do much else yet. That may be my answer. Thanks !

Mark