I've made some progress on the Cirrus since my last post. The hull panels are cut out and stitched together and I've started on the deck panels. But I've run into a problem. I had picked marine Okoume for the hull and 1/8" white oak and 1/8" maple for the deck. My plan was to use the oak for the outermost panels and the maple for the innermost panels.

Now for the problem - the oak plywood I bought isn't up to the job. I've found the core isn't very good, the veneer is very thin, and the back isn't very good quality either. The maple seems to be usable, but the oak is pretty flimsy. In addition, in the process of trying to make the oak work I ended up with some really wavy edges.

So now I can think of four options.
1) Keep the oak, try to sand and plane it to make it fit, and hope it will be strong enough by the time I add glass and epoxy
2) Buy another sheet of maple and do the whole deck in maple.
3) Forget the plywood deck entirely and strip the deck.
4) Try to use the maple ply for the two inner sections and strips to replace the outer sections.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these ideas, or other things I might try?

Chris