Hey Chip,

There was a classic and antique wooden boat show in Bigfork, Montana this weekend. (Hey, if I can't come see you guys, at least my mind was still on wooden boats!) One fellow had a 1963 single scull that had a cold-moulded hull and a (what looked like) dacron deck. Made me think of your ideas for a strip or S&G hull with a SOF deck--now I've seen one in person (and this one evidently works well--it took silver in the 1964 Olympics.

Mike's plywood Walrus, Don Beale's strip Walrus, and Dave Murphy's S&G qajariaq are all essentially SOF designs with a wood sheathing. I'd honestly recommend against taking the time to build a frame and full ribs and then covering the entire thing with plywood--seems awfully heavy. But, a framed deck that you could skin? Sounds like it would be definitely workable. You may want to beef up the gunwales/sheer clamps and treat them like canoe gunwales for structure.

Go for it!

: I paddled several SOFs at last weekend's R2K3 (thanks for a great weekend
: Joe) and I really liked the narrow beam and lowered volume of those boats.
: I paddled Ben Staley's new SOF and Mike Hanks Walrus. I paddled Bill
: Price's Seaspirit and Arica's Silver (Yes, Scott Dollmeyer drove up from
: Southern California... Scott, that was a real honor to see your
: masterpiece there). Anyway, I loved the feel of the skin boats and I like
: the idea of anthropometric measurements. I started thinking it would be
: fun to do one of the SOF designs but then, when it comes time to put
: stringers on, stop and use the ribs as forms for a stripper instead.

: The downside is - you'd get a different hull shape without those stringers.
: Option two would be to build the strip version of Bobby's Seaspirit or
: drop the deck on another strip design (like a Redfish King). I would still
: use fabric on the deck; the stitching would go along the sheerline.

: - Chip