Wouldn't it make sense to run two layers of wood strips, half the "usual" thickness, perpendicular to each other.

You could either use rings perpendicular to the usual strip direction, or lay strips 45 degrees to the keel (spiral effect) in 90 degree opposition to each other.

> Since a kayak is weakest perpendicular to the strips (failures
> propagate by splitting the wood strips) and many damaging loads a
> kayak experiences are perpendicular to the strips and keel (scraping
> at landing ), it seems reasonable to make the direction perpendicular
> to the strips as strong as possible.

> Unless you have specific reasons for doing otherwise, I would
> recommend running all the cloth parallel and perpendicular to the
> keel adding as much strength to strips as possible.