I went somewhere in the middle. My Guillemot 18 was my first stripper, but I wanted to make the best kayak I could given my present abilities. My goal was to use no staples, but I used a couple staples, a couple screws, and a couple finish nails to hold recalcitrant strips in place. You have to look pretty hard to see the holes.

In my opinion, a few holes were better than hundreds of holes. While no holes at all is a lofty goal, it's not always acheivable for first-time builders. Still, instead of using a staple where every strip crossed every station, I probably saved 1,000 staples (or 2000 holes). I probably have 50 or 60 holes, total. It's not 100% staple-free, but I'll accept 97% hole-less, especially for my first boat. It looks staple-less, but I'm also excited enough after completing it to want to build kayak #3.

Shawn

: You need to decide for your self what your goal is. Do you want a boat you
: will have fun paddling or do you want a show place for your craftsmanship.
: You can easily make a nice boat quite quickly which will paddle great and
: impress your friends, or you can which a huge amount of effort build a
: piece of furniture which will paddle great and impress even your enemies.

: If you go into to the project of building your first boat with the attitude
: that you want a piece of art, you will very likely get frustrated and lose
: enthusiasm for the project as your first-timer mistakes start to
: accumulate. Or you can have alot of fun building a boat which you are not
: overly concerned about achieveing perfection, get it done in a reasonable
: amount of time and despite everything, end up with a thing of beauty. And
: when you are done you will be so excited that you will want to build
: another.

: There was a builder on this board last year who brought his boat to the
: Newfound Rendezvous last year who did a knock out job (including no
: staples) and he swears he will never build a kayak again. It took him over
: 400 hours and it shows, but he ruined the fun of the project.

: I rarely hear from people who quit building their boat because they just got
: bored. I have heard from a good number who have stalled out or quit
: because of one or two strips which just would not lay in place
: "perfectly". If they had just run a sheetrock screw through the
: recalitrant strip they would be done by now. They would have a boat they
: could be proud of and would have to take pains to point out the offending
: hole.

: Boats built without staples look better than boats built with staples, but
: boats built with staples look a whole lot better than a form with a dozen
: strips on it sitting in the basement gather dust.

: The goal of the project should be to have fun. If you can only have fun by
: creating a "perfect" boat, then you should take the time and not
: use staples. You need to decide for yourself what you want to achieve with
: the project and select your building standards appropriately.