> Has anyone else thought of making a boat of two layers - an outer cedar or
> woodstrip layer, very thin for appearance and ding resistance, with an
> inner layer of foam for lightness and to spread the layers of fiberglass
> out? I'm not sure how much weight would be saved this way, but it would be
> possible to dramatically increase the cross-sectional distance between the
> fiberglass, increasing stiffness substantially. Also, along keel, and
> towards the bow and stern you could put vertical-grain balsa behind the
> veneer to make it REALLY impact resistant...

> Just thinking out loud.

The friend of a neighbour came over when he saw my kayak sitting outside while I cleaned my garage yesterday. I told him that I was planning on building a cedar stripper. He said that he worked for someone when he was younger that built power boats this way. The difference was that they first covered the forms with marine grade plywood and then epoxied the strips to the ply and to each other. He said this made a very strong hull. Weight wasn't a concern for them, though, as they were powered. I guess the theory is the same.

Don't know if this really worked as the company is defunct. Hmmmm.

Ian