> Each form has a cam strap clamp around it to hold the strips
> close to the forms. There are wedges between the strips and straps
> as needed to hold the angle correct. The duct tape is on the outside
> of the strips between the straps. I ran the tape along the strips
> (2" wide tape on 3/4" strips) so it acts like a long clamp
> to hold the bead in the cove.

> I only had the tape on for 2 days, that's about how long it takes
> for me to strip a hull without staples.

Sounds like you are developing one heck of a good system there. Ever consider mass production?

Why not set up your production so that you can strip the boat in a matter of an hour or so?

For me, the most time consuming thing was fitting each strip. There were a few strips that needed no adjusting, but most seemed to need tapering at the ends. While I was planing the pieces to fit I had plenty of time to wish for individual plans for each strip, so that they all could be cut to size ahead of time, and then rapidly assembled.

Since you are assembling an entire boat without glue, why not number each piece, release the bands, copy the specs for each piece, (trace it?) and then reassemble the boat, knowing that each piece will fit. The reassembly should not take very long.

You would probably only have to do this once for each design you choose to build. In fact, you might only have to trace pieces for half of each boat design. (either left half or right half). Hopefully, you could clamp two strips together and shape the pair close to finished size. One piece would go on the left sude of the hull, the other piece on the opposite side. That would assure symmetry, and perhaps cut some time off of shaping the pieces.

Assuming a perfectly round bottom hull, for a 24 inch wide boat I'd need about 40 1 inch (25mm) strips for the hull, with 3/4 inch (19mm) strips I'd need about 50. I've always made each strip uniquely -- one at a time as I fit them to the partially assembled hull. With plans for 20 to 25 pairs of strips I could make those strips faster.

The problem was getting the plans. Once a piece was made, it was already glued in. I could not remove it to trace it. Using duct tape and clamps sounds like a way around that.

I might worry about how precise those traced plans would be, but it seems that even if a third of them were way off, I would still be time ahead. After placing two precut strips that came close, I could easily adjust the third. It shouldn`t take much to bring things into perfect alignment, and then I'd have a quick time setting in the next three strips.

What do you think? Is this possible? Or, am I just hallucinating after inhaling too much sawdust?

Paul Jacobson