Whoa... barrage of questions. This is new to me, so some questions I can only answer with what I intend to do. Here goes...

I started by gluing the sheer strip from tip-to-tip. I used three separate narrow strips on each side which easily took the curve near the stems. After that, I used full width strips, but I eased the curve at the ends leaving rooms for some cheater strips at the ends. You can use those gaps to your advantage to help clamp the strip. You can place a scrap that spans the last two strips and put a drywall screw through the scrap, through the gap, and into the inner stem. This clamping from beneath lets you add another strip immediately without having to work around a bunch of spring clamps.

Once I place a dot of glue, I'll either hold it for 5-10 seconds or I'll put one of the U-shape plywood jigs to hold the strip while I move down. The hot glue made for wood seems to be pretty tenacious. I haven't had any strips pop off. However, the Outer Island is a pretty easy hull to strip, having no hollow areas. Other designs may be more difficult to strip using hot-glue.

I finished the football area this weekend. I stripped one side and then the other. As soon as I got one strip on, I immediately moved down to the next. Except for the extreme twist strips near the keel which required a bunch of clamps on the stems, the football could be stripped in one session (if one were so inclined).

I intend to use a scraper to remove the hot-glue blobs. This is what Rob Mack's recommends. It's one of those things I've yet to experience, so I'm not sure how difficult it will be. I could try it with a scrap strip, but at this point I'm committed, so putting glue on a piece of scrap would just allow me to perfect my removal technique.

I've been pleasantly surprised in how quickly I can go using the hot glue. Here's a photo of the nearly completed hull.

Ross