: CALLING ALL EXPERTS! I'M IN DEEP TROUBLE HERE!

: I'm building an Outer Island. I'm trying to lay the strips that go by the
: side of the cockpit and from the front deck to the low rear deck. My
: strips are air dried WRC cove and bead 11/16" wide and .275"
: thick ala the One Ocean concept.

: The problem is that I can't get the strips to take the bend from the front to
: rear deck. Over 75% of my tries have fractured, regardless of the method
: used.

Hi Ken,

I had a lot of pieces fracture on my self design kayak which I felt may have had more stressed area's then many boats here.
I use Western Red Cedar that was as thick as yours and wider, 3/4".
I tried all of the methods you mention and a couple you didn't. One was I chopped a hole in the ice in my pond and slid the strips underneath and left them there until I was ready for one. The trouble with that was I had to clamp them in place to the forms until they dried before I could glue them together. The method I was using entirely in the end was slitting the strip in the stressed area, spreading the split and forcing glue in between and immediately gluing the strip in place. I laid the strip onto a flat board and clamped a steel straight edge down the middle, then took a utility knife and lightly started several cuts until I cut through. I can’t remember fracturing a strip this way.

John