: Have you had any problems with the scarfs breaking with those kind of
: lengths? I've considered doing just that but didn't know if the joints
: would hold up. Does it create a problem just scarfing the pieces in place?

I'm a big advocate of scarfing the boards to length (and then some) before ripping strips from them.

I start with 1x6 or 1x8 boards that are 8 or 10 feet long -- a common enough size and easily transported. I rip them in half to get two narrow boards that are nominally 3 or 4 inches wide.

I flip one of these thin boards so the fresh cut edge of the top of the board lines up with the fresh-cut edge of the top of the other thin board. this keeps the color very close. Once they are oriented, I overlap the pieces by 18 inches to 2 feet (depends on how I feel !) and use a handheld circular saw to cut a single diagonal slice through the overlapped pieces. Sometimes I clamp on a guide, and sometimes I just follow a straight pencil line I draw on the wood. Since the pieces are stacked, the cut edges will match perfectly. I just glue the single cut edge and clamp the boards together while the glue sets.

3 clamps do the job, and the boards are easier to keep in a straight line than scarfing the lighter, thinner strips.

Depending on how wide my original boards were, I get 7 to 10 strips from each of these thin boards. Doing just one scarf joint for that many strips is much easier than doing 7 individual scarfs.

When I rip strips from these long, thin boards the scarfed areas are automatically trimmed clean, reducing sanding time later, and leaving the strips ready for running through a router for beads and coves. The long scarf area (something over 1:6) gives a very strong joint -- something around a 2 inch glue area -- which also maintains the smooth flexibility of the strip.

I think jsut doing a single board in this manner, and getting 7 long strips, should be all you need for getting started. You'll have material for your sheer strips, both for the hull and deck, and still have some long strips you can use for lining up the frames.

When using this method for cutting thicker strips for chines for skin on frame kayaks I've been very pleased with the results, too.

Hope this helps.

PGJ