: I am about to start my first boat after being totally fed up with plastic for
: a while. Me being me I have decided to build my own design. While I like
: the stitch and glue for its speed of construction, I love the look of
: strip-built. So I have decided to stitch and glue the chined hull and
: strip build the deck.

: . . . and since I am going to be shortly moving
: to contracts in areas unknown I can take a week or so to rough the hull
: and the strips then carry everything with me to finish wherever I end up
: without spending a ton of money.

If you want a boat that you can move in a hurry, go with the stitch and glue, and get the deck on in a hurry. The hull will be much stronger when it is joined to the deck. Overall glass can wait, and so can sanding. Save the stripped deck for your next project.

Plan b: make wide, thin boards out of edgeglued strips and use those as if they were plywood. Make your deck from these, using stitch and glue techniques. You can attach the deck with a sheer chine or a fillet of epoxy and fiberglass tape. This gives you a strip look but in a fraction of the time.

To assemble such wide, thin panels you first need to rip your strips. Bead and cove edges are not necessary.

Get a sheet of 5/8 or 3/4 inch plywood or particle board to use as a base, cover witha lyer or two of newspaper. saran wrap, or wax paper so drips from your glue won't permanently attach things to the base. Line all your strips up on edge so they roughly resemble the way they were when they were parts of the board you cut them from. Remove one strip from the stack. This is your starter strip. While holding the stack tightly together, spread glue smoothly and evenly over the top of this stack. Now separate the boards and lay them flat on your plywood. Put the starter strip at the edge of the plywood and clamp it gently in place. Add all the rest of your strips, with the glued edge making contact with the unglued edge of the strip next to it. Clamp an 8 foot long 2x4 to your plywood an inch or two past the assembled rows of strips and insert some wedges between the strips and the 2x4. The wedges will provide some pressure on the edgeglued strips until the glue dries. You can use epoxy resin for glue, or you can use a waterproof glue, if you just plan to varnish the deck. If you are going to fiberglass the deck on both sides then you may use a white glue or a carpenters glue instead.

If you going to glass the deck,(and you should) then after the glued up strips have bonded, sand the panel flat and smooth (a belt sander makes this job very fast), clean off the dust, and apply the glass cloth and resin to the side which you want as the inside of your deck. You don't need to fill the weave, but you should put on two coats of epoxy to make sure you completely cover the material. This holds the strips very firmly and eliminates the need to try and glass the inside of the deck after it is installed.

Scarf your plywood for your hull panels first and do the strip work for the deck second. You can use the 4x8 base to clamp your plywood to while the scarf is being worked. Once the scarfs are made that base will be free to use for assembling the strip panels. While the glue sets up on the first panels you can be cutting and assembling the plywood for the hull. Start each work day by working on the strip panels -- which should not take a lot of labor time, but will need time for the glue and resin to harden -- then go on to working on the hull. By the time you have the fillets done on the hull you should have your deck materials ready to attach. Nail, screw or wire them on and then go pack for your move.

hope this helps. Good luck with your project and your move.

PGJ
After you install the deck you can easily cover the outside of your strips with your glass and resin.