: I am getting ready to buy my lumber. Approx. how many full length stips are
: needed for my 16 1/2 foot kayak. I don't want to buy all 18 foot stock if
: I don't need it.

You can go with as few as 5 or 7.

Why buy 18 foot stock at all? The price per board foot goes up as the boards get longer. Buy a 10 foot 1x6 or 1x8, rip it in half ot give you nominal 1x3 or 1x4 pieces, and then scarf those pieces together to give yo a nice long board.

You'l have nearly invisible joints if, after ripping the original board in half you flip one of the halves so that what was the "top" of that board is scarfed to the "top" of the other half. The wood coloration and grain should be very close, and the scarf joint will be concealed. Simply satck those two boards so they ovelap about 2 feet and cut a single diagonal line through where they overlap. When you remove the 2-foot-long wedges, your boards will line up nicely to be glued.

Scarfing the board before ripping strips is much faster than ripping the strips and then trying to scarf two strips into a longer strip. You eliminate all the time needed to "clean up" the joints. The strips you rip from these joined boards will be perfectly free of glue and appear perfectly aligned.

Hope this helps.

PGJ