Hi Arthur

: I noticed you stripped your hull with 11 stations and it looks real good, I
: don't see any staples either.
I did it without staples. Somedays I wished I did!

I used 19 stations and didn't think they
: were too many, wonder if it was easier or harder for you to strip with 11
: stations and if you used 1/4" strips or thinner ones. From the looks
: of the photo I sure can't quarrel with your using 11 stations, I am just
: curious if it was easier
: because it was less to line up with and the strips just did the rest (not
: that easy, but you know what I mean:-).

The 11 stations is the newer set of plans from Rob. I still had a job to align them let alone 19.I used 3/16 strips also.

Also I found that in my quest to
: do a "good" job of the steaming on the tail I put too many pre
: bent small strips on the tail piece when I should have left about half of
: the tail strips as "full" strips. I should have started my
: "full" strips lower. Now I can see that 5 or 6 strips
: from the keel on down (or up on a right side up boat) should be
: "full" ones. I have only 3 full ones before my "joint"

I too would almost made this mistake by stripping down the tail too far with the short strips but Rob poinrted it out to me in an earlier pic I posted.

: starts and because of the extreme angle of the strips joining at that
: point it leaves 3 strips with a less than attractive joint. I ended up
: "butting" strips that should have been continuous (These strips
: weren't as extremely curved as some of the bigger ones but were
: still too curved .... I thought, to do with out steaming and hence could not
: be "full" end to end strips) Anyway I hope you can follow my
: poor explanation, I was wondering how your tail joint came out. Mine is
: structurally good and on the top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 it is great looking,
: but in the middle part of the joint I had too much end grain and glue
: damage to make a pretty joint, I ended up filling it smooth there and
: after it has a good coat of epoxy and sanding I plan a little
: "artistic" painted curved "accent" there, ha, ha.

I too had some problems in that area and my joint didn't turn out as well as expected and I have been thinking of way to also blend it before I glass the hull. It really isn't that bad and noone notices it but me but it still bugs me!
Not
: complaining, just learning and getting more experience .... thought it
: would be fun to compare a few notes, like your strong back is looking just
: like mine, but the span between your 2 stands in the middle looks to be
: around 9' or more... wow ! I also used top quality (5/8") ply for the
: strong back and used plenty of 1 1/4" course drywall screws to put it
: together, but I found that even that well built strong back needed more
: support than the 2 stands Rob suggests

I built mine from 1/2" and it still nice and straight. I also put my stands on castors so I could move it due to limited space.
( I built those
: too, to use for ripping the strips and for holding the hull while I do the
: deck). I put mine on 2 - 4' aluminum "horses" each starting
: about 2' in from the end and leaving an unsupported span in the middle of
: 6' or so. Then becuase it was so easy, I put a support 2' X 4" from
: the floor up to the strong back to cut even that span down to only 3'. I
: had the horses anyway and it was nothing to throw a 2" X 4"
: "leg" in the middle. This is more support than is required of
: course, but it did make an absolutely solid support when I was finished
: bracing it. I noticed that before I did this that even my well built
: strong back had quite a bit of "flex" to it before I had it well
: supported. Any way just a little curiosity and looking to see how it goes
: with you

:Wow those twists and turns on some of the bow strips were sure
: fun weren't they ??

You're not kidding there!

Thanks for the photo, it was a little strange to see
: "My Boat" sitting in your garage ....

Have you done your deck yet? Any pictures to post of yours? Pardon any typos as I'm typing in the dark on my home computer which only has a small monitor.I started a small web site showing my progress which you can check out but I haven't had time to update it lately. The link is in my profile. Nice talking and keep me posted of your progress.
Steve