Thanks Ross, I've spent quite a few hours on your website learning tricks and admiring your work. Actually I probably have spent more time on the web looking at boats and reading than I have in the garage working on my own boat. I have been very inspired by those of you who have been at this for a long time but it can be pretty intimidating also.

My method for the striped detail was not very refined, I cut the alternating dark and light pieces(dark cedar and hemlock) using a pull saw and small aluminum x-acto miterbox. I laid out the 1/4 x 1/4 walnut strip and applied glue to it, pushed the small pieces against it without any glue between them hoping that they would bend to the curve of the boat a little better. Then put glue on the other walnut strip and clamped the whole thing down to my workbench using as many clamps as I could physically fit on it. I did this in 6 ft lengths and joined them on the boat.

Shawns method is far superior, using thicker wood and then sawing down to strip thickness but my power tools are pretty limited and I had already cut all of my wood into 1/4" strips.

I have more pictures at the link below, most recent on the third building page.

Do you think the 1/2 sheet ROM is a lot better or is the 5" round going to be ok.