: William,
: The type of strip building that we do is not translatable to something as big
: and as complicated as an 18' sailboat. Sailboats of that size need a lot
: of internal structure to deal with all the dynamics of mast, stays, keel,
: sails etc.
:
: Charlie

Charlie,

Sorry to disagree with you, but while the dynamic loads of the rig and keel of a sailboat do add a little complexity, and a little framing, the strip building process in use here on the KBBB is almost identical to that used on a larger sail boat.

Having built a 25 ft strip planked sail boat, I feel qualified to make that assertion. The boat was launched in '89 and is still going strong - fast, comfortable and easy to sail. In '93, after returning from 2 years in the USA, we sailed it as a family in the Australian State of Victoria's Port Philip bay against one of the most competitive trailable yacht fleets in the bay. With my wife and I and four kids (ranging in age from 8 to 15) on board, many in the club nicknamed it "the creche".

As we progressively won 90% of the available trophies for the season, they dropped the nickname.

The design I used came from Lidguard in New Zealand. If anyone is interested, I will look up their current contact details and post them.

Regards, Ron
Brisbane Australia