: I live in Indiana, and I cannot find any cedar boards over 16', and my kayak
: will be 17' long. I know you can join strips together that do not run the
: entire length of the boat, but has anyone built a boat with all shorter
: strips, and no strips running the entire length. Also, when you join
: strips, do you have to join them at one of the forms? Bear with me, I have
: one more question. All of the cedar boards that I have seen are full of
: knots. I couldn't find one board that was free of knots, including 8'
: boards. Do I have to rip the wood, and then cut of the knots, making the
: boards even shorter? Thanks for any info.

I had no problem getting long wood...
However tring to feed 18' through a table saw was tough... And
after all that, after the first few strips, I was cutting all the rest shorter.
Then I found that joints can be the best way to fit strips when ya have
a tough fit on each end of the kayak, fit each end and join them in the middle.
Alot of strips I used were 2" to 2'. Im not going out of my way to find
long wood again, And Im going to have a pattern in the deck anyway.
Dave

(Cool kayak John...)