> One of these days I will strip up a deck for a composite hull I have
> kicking around. It is not worth making a mold if all you are going to do
> is build a couple boats. It requires too much effort and the payoff is not
> that large.

> My original thought is I would be more willing to beat up a composite hull
> than a stripped one. A composite hull would provide a little more
> tolerance to abuse and with a stripped deck the boat would look just about
> as good as a fully stripped boat.

> Since then, I have not persued the idea much, but it is still on the
> project list.

Nick--

I'm not sure if you'll see this, as it has been a busy week on the bulletin board, but I wanted to pursue this thread. I have been thinking of trying to build a carbon/kevlar composite hull with a woodstrip deck, probably from your Expedition Single plans. I picked up a book on making Kevlar canoes from a male mold and thought I could borrow techniques from there and your book. My main reason for doing this would be the challenge of doing something a little different, but the other reason would be weight/strength considerations. Do you have any thoughts on whether you would save much weight this way (if at all)? How did you lay up the composite hulls you began?

TIA, Will