After considering the various alternatives, I decided to try Titebond Polyurethane (not the regular Titebond), since it was on sale and available, while the Gorilla Brand Glue was neither. The Titebond says it is water resistant. I glued a sample of strips together and boiled one sample. After 20 minutes of boiling, I could break the strips apart at the glue line with considerable hand force. Another sample was left to soak in a pan of water for several days. This sample could be broken apart, again with considerable hand force, but the joint was destroyed in doing so. That is, the joint didn't so much fail due to glue failure, but because the force was focused at that point. The wood was poplar ( yes poplar, not something else going by that name). Admittedly the test was quick and dirty, no multiple samples, no blind sampling, no controls, but was enough to convince me that in the event of damage sufficient to compromise the integrity of the epoxy/glass layers, the wood strips were not going to fall apart too. There was no stress applied to the strips throughout the soaking, only during the attempts to break the joints. In addition, as Pete mentioned, the polyurethanes are a delight to sand, they foam up as they cure and the foam just disintegrates under light sanding/scraping. They do stain skin, so gloves are recommended if you're doing a lot of gluing up.

> I'm planning for my first stripbuilt kayak and have heard of
> people using hot glue, wood glue or epoxy to bond the strips together.
> Is there "right" or best way to do it? Hot glue seems like
> it would be quickest and easiest but is this as strong as wood glue?
> Epoxy seems like the strongest but slow and messy. Does hot glue run
> the risk of softning if the finished kayak is left out in direct sunlight?
>