Paint Ridge

I painted my hull and small edge of deck now I have a paint ridge. I used fine line tape and brightsides, now I'm ready to varnish. My varnish will build up some but I'm afraid I will have a ridge. I read some people run a tape pine stripe to cover it, but do I need to knock ridge down first? I would only use 1/4" stripe so how do I sand that narrow?

Thanks Phil