: Hi - I've just moved to Australia and am researching the building of a Night
: Heron & Guillemot S.
: Could anyone point me at where I could get the strips from? Ideally I'd like
: to get them cut into 3/5" x 1/4" strips with coves & beads

You might consider NOT going with cove and bead edges on yoru strips. It would probably be easier and cheaper to buy a common tool, such as a wood plane in Australia than to find someone selling strips with moulded edges. with plain edged strips you might have to do a small amount of fitting, using that wood plane, but it is very easy to do, fairly intuitive, and it goes quickly.

I suspect you might want ot get your wood in a metric size, too. 18mm to 19mm would be close to the 3/4 inch width commonly used in the US, and a thickness of 5mm to 6mm would be close to the desired 3/16th to 1/4 inch thickness. If you want the full 1/4 inch thickness you're talking closer to 6.25 mm.

: as it is not practical to do this where I live.

: What type of local wood is suitable?

Find a phone book and call around. You'll probably find some pine, but as about inexpensive local varieties which are light weight. Tell the lumberyard what you are doing and ask for their advice. They may even be able to refer you to a local carpenter, or mill who could rip the strips for you for a modest fee. Or, attack the problem from the other end. Find a carpenter and have them suggest a reputable lumberyard. If you can rent a tablesaw for a day you can make your own strips, too.

: I'm also trying to cost the materials. Could anyone share their breakdown of
: costs? In particular a breakdown of the cost to build in Australia.

Your big cost areas are lumber, glasscloth and resin. It really pays to shop around for the glass and resin as your costs can vary widely. Lumber costs include wood for the strongback and sawhorses, or table the strongback rests on, as well as the strips, or wood for the strips. Making your own strips is a tremendous cost saving step. In the US, for what you would pay for bead and cove strips for two kayaks you could buy the lumber, a cheap tablesaw, and still have cash left.

It is not always good to be a stranger in a strange land. You might want to find where there are boatbuilding operations, and chandleries, or ship supply stores, and spend some time getting to know the people there, as well as the availability of materials before you get started on these projects.

Best of luck in your projects

PGJ