: Hi, Glen-

: Pecan is gorgeous, good luck. I've milled a bit of it; I agree it is heavy.

: FWIW, I've used 5/32" strips, with hardwood. I've got no experience at
: all with 1/4" softwood, so I cannot compare, but the 5/32"
: hardwood strips behave nicely. Also, the 5/32" pecan will weigh about
: the same as 1/4" cedar, ballpark.

: Others raised good points about width of strips. When rolling around the
: chine, if one doesn't reduce the strip width to 1/2" or less, there
: is not enough material to plane/sand.

: I agree with Gerald that there are many ways to skin this cat. It seems that
: there is a complete spectrum in design philosophy. One extreme is that the
: core material (wood) provides little or no contibution to the structure of
: the yak, the other extreme is that the wood core provides a lot of
: structural contribution, and there is alot of room in the middle. The
: beauty thing is that all the methods seem to work.

: My only major concern had been the adhesion of the epoxy and glass to the
: wood, since, as a rule,hardwoods do not glue as well as the softwoods. It
: has not been a problem, though, possibly due to the fact that it is not
: actually a problem, or possibly due to my anality in trying to make sure
: it did not become one. (I only sand the hull to 60 grit, deck to 80 grit,
: immediaitely after final sanding do seal coat with epoxy, the glass/fill).
: Knock on wood, even ash and locust (two not-great-gluing woods) have held
: up fine.

: Have a blast! Good luck- Mike

Thanks for those encouraging words Mike. It is a blast so far. Glen