In building my kayak, I put down my curvy strips first, then filled in the resulting areas.

This give a problem where any strips that are completly enclosed will need to be cut to exact lenghts or the gaps will need to be filled in.

The case where a strip was to long is shown in the attached link. At the time of stripping I thought it was good but sanding opened up the gap. This is just one example of almost a dozen on my boat. These could have been easily avoided.

For my next kayak, I'll try and work to the cockpit by laying strips cutting the pattern fill the pattern, and continue laying strips. Im not sure if that makes sense. What I'm trying to accomplish is to not have an enlosed area to fill in, or have an area, that forces two cuts on a strip prior to putting it in place.

FWIW, one benifit to doing it the original way, is that it gives a good Idea of what the design will look like.

good luck

Myrl