Hey Whitewolf,

I had pretty good luck using a small palm sander on the bottom and sides of the hull. I found that the larger the sander was the more of a pain it was to use especially when trying to sand the front bottom half of the hull where the hull curves as it gets closer to the bow. A belt sander will be even more difficult to use because the surface is not flat and the wood/resin is going to be thin enough for the belt sander to eat up. At some point, it will lead to more filling.

During the Dauntless rebuild, I ended up ditching the sander altogether in favor of wrapping sandpaper around a small block of wood and manually do the sanding for a nice finish.

Initially, I use 220grit sandpaper to remove the shine and even out the surface. Then I move to finer sandpaper 320grit, going upward to 400 then 600grit until it is smooth.

Hopefully this will help you get started sooner without spending additional money.

-Rich.