I glued in the last strip into the deck of my double last night. I can't believe how long it has taken me to get this far. I guess I shouldn’t have gone staple-less on my first try. I can't say it's been fun but it has definitely fulfilled some sort of deep creative urge (an urge I hope I can overcome in the future).

I'd like to thank to the members of this forum for the incentive to keep me motivated during the long and tedious process of stripping this hulk. I have learned lots by reading this board but mostly I have found that I wasn’t the only one with problems and questions. That really helped me to feel that I hadn’t bitten off more than I could chew because every newbie seemed to be having the same issues I was. Also, without the pictures of your beautiful boats I would never have kept at it. Living in Central Florida I have never seen a strip built boat other than in the pictures posted here. Seeing yours certainly kept me motivated.

You know I never thought what you folks were doing would be easy but I didn’t expect it to take 7 months just to do the stripping. I had to go easy after the hull was complete because sanding it gave me severe tendonitis in my left elbow. Since this one is staple-less I have kept up with most of the fairing and some of the sanding as I proceeded so I suspect the deck will not take a lot of time to prep for epoxy.

Here is a picture with one strip to go.

Kyle T