: I also have a question about the sprayskirt for a wood-strip boat. Is the
: fiberglass over wood design strong enough to use a traditional neoprene
: skirt? Does the contour/shape of the cockpit match up and hold up to the
: 'pull' of traditional neoprene skirts?

Neoprene skirts are fine. The strength of the cockpit is completely up to the builder. Some here have built fiberglass only coamings on their boats (See references in past articles to Spidey's pages). Most are wood/glass composites, often with laminations for visual appeal. In the two years I've followed this forum, I've never heard of someone having a cockpit/coaming failure. Not that it couldn't happen :-) Most of the stress on the cockpit that I've experienced comes from entering and exiting the boat, not the skirt. That is usually handled by beefing up the coaming itself and/or the under deck areas fore and aft of the cockpit.

Bill