Just to throw in another nickle:

I use a 1/4" lauan 4 1/4" x 22" fairing board with wood block handles at each end with 80 grit sandpaper for most of my sanding. Both pieces of an 8 1/2 X 11 inch sheet of paper cut in half lengthwise covers the board without waste. I also found a 1/8" lauan 2 13/16 (8 1/2" divided by 3) x 11" fairing board to be useful in hard curved areas.

I use 3M 77 spray adhesive to attach the sandpaper. A heat gun removes it quickly and cleanly.

: What Paul said, great explanation. They're pretty easy to make. Some builders
: like to use them with handles at the ends, some like the handles in a few
: inches from the ends. I made mine pretty much the way Paul described it,
: just put the handles in about 6". I made mine about 20" long x
: 4.5" wide. I picked up a roll of Porter Cable Adhesive Back Sanding
: Roll, 4.5" wide by 10 yds. long, 80 grit, Catalog #: 74 000 08 01. It
: was $16 at Woodcraft. I just roll out a length, stick it to my fairing
: board and I'm ready to go. Some builders don't use them, I won't build a
: boat WITHOUT using it. One way to tell if you've lots of high spots on
: your hull is to turn out the overhead lights then shine a light along the
: length of the hull, the high and low spots should show up as shadows.
: What boat are you building? Vaclav's Manual from OneOceanKayak has a great
: explanation on fairing boards. BTW, you can spend serious money, like $75
: for a 3M board from your local marine store, but that's NOT necessary.
: Fairing boards are used all the time on boats when fiberglass repair,
: epoxy layup, etc. is being done. They come in handy for getting these
: cedar beauties smooth and even.