If you insist on avoid staples, Rob's method is the best I've tried. I used Rob's basic method on a couple boats and was pleased with the results. It does take a leap of faith to "permanently" glue your strips to the forms and then pound on the forms to break them free. While I was not able to get my boats to pop off with zero tear-out, it stayed within exceptable limits. Maybe I used too much hot-glue, but there didn't seem to be real correlation between the amount of glue and tear-out.

In my latest boat I modified my technique somewhat. I limited the hotglue to only those places where it was really necessary. If the strip stayed in place reasonably well without the glue I didn't use it, or anything else. If I found strips lifting later I would apply a little hotmelt as needed. I also took advantage of carpenters glue's ability to tack-up quickly.

I used a lot of tape to clamp the strips tightly together. This needs to be pulled off before laying the next strip, but if I didn't mind switching sides every strip, the time it took to get the strip in place on the far side was sufficient for the glue to tack up enough that I could remove the tape without fear of the seam opening up. I tried using dabs of hotglue between strips instead of the tape, but couldn't get them to work as well as the tape for me. I used blue "painters" masking tape or fiberglass packing tape. Blue tape comes off easier, packing tape can apply more pressure. Blue was usually sufficient.

I ended up primariliy using the hotmelt only near the ends where the strips were tortured the most. In places that glue didn't cool fast enough I just slipped on one of the "U" clamps with a spring clamp (below) and kept on moving. In the middle of the boat I only used the glue on the first few "sheer" strips. On later strips I occasionally would add a small spot of glue if the strips showed a tendancy to lift. On the very bottom of the boat, I just used staples. Staples are still the quickest and easiest method.

Since I was using an internal strongback and didn't want to complicate freeing the forms any more than I had too, when I flipped the boat over I broke all the hotmelt glue joints with a hammer. A light tap, next to the glue joint was usually sufficient. I can remove the hull from the forms before trying to break off the deck.

On the deck of the boat I am working on, the shapes are generally flat and untortured. I only used hotglue on the centerline and sheerline. With all the other strips, I used a sacrificial staple strip. I would put a strip in place and the put on another one that I would staple in place. Again, this had to be removed before adding a strip, but with my stripping pattern and by switching side, I did not have to stop working. By the time I got back to each location the carpenters glue was set sufficiently to remove all clamps.

I still find the "U" clamps to be really useful. I use them when dry fitting strips to hold them in place. They act as an extra set of hands when the hotmelt is slow in cooling. And in places where hotmelt is overkill yet the strip could use a little persuasion to stay until the carpenters glue sets up, I'll use the "U" clamp until I'm ready to add the next strip.

By using a combination of Rob's hotmelt method and some other clamping strategies I find I can move along quickly and not have to worry about trying to break the boat off the forms.

I still don't recommend going staple free. It takes time and complicates the building process. Staple free does look nice, but the staple holes do not look bad. If you are building a boat that will be used hard, the staples holes are not a big enough aesthetic concern to bother worrying about. If you've built a few boats and want to take your craftsmanship to the "next level" (whatever that means) then you can consider avoiding staples.

I met a guy last summer who was bragging about how he didn't use staples. Well, he also didn't use varnish and after a couple years use his epoxy was destroyed and the boat was starting to fall apart... ...but there were no staple holes. He would have spent his time better learning how to varnish well. Avoiding staples is the last thing he should have worried about. If you want to take your kayak building to the "next level" work on wood selection, joint fitting, fairing/sanding wood, fiberglassing, applying epoxy, fairing/sanding epoxy, and varnishing. It is only after you've worked the bugs out of those things that the absence of staples will make a difference. If you can't apply a smooth coat of varnish, don't get too worked up about some little staple holes. Even with a perfect varnish job, the staples don't seriously detract from the looks of the boat.