: Hi,

: Thanks for those couple of replies so far.

: Apologies for not being able to spell "bagging":-)

: I'll check out the web for the products and techniques mentioned and hope to
: give it a go when I get that far.

: I need to look into peel ply too, have seen that used with both good and bad
: results so not 100% sold on it yet.

: Regards,
: Darren

If you use a vacuum on the cedar strips it must be sealed to prevent air from penetrating from behind.
It will flatten the weave and you will sacrifice strength. I agree with some of the others that a well used squeegee provides optimum strength to weight but I don't know if there is any real data to support that. I would just use a lighter cloth for lighter weight.
If you do use cedar strips don't use cove and bead if you want to make sure of minimum weight. Unless the strips fit perfectly the voids will be filled with heavier epoxy.

One thing that I am going to try this year is to build a fast kayak - 20 feet x 19" with diagonal 1/8" x 4" cedar veneer with no glass. I have done this before when I had built a Bangor Packet with my Dad. That was 3 layers and was one heck of fast rowing wherry. I had veneer left over so I built a Kayak off the same mould with much less freeboard and only two layers. That was in 1979 and I still have it. I had to move it out of storage the other day and I couldn't believe how light and stiff it was. The wood was sealed with thinned epoxy. There is no sign of deterioration.
I intend to expand the cockpit and use it as a double for Tuesday night racing with my kids.
But having just built a mystery I have been thinking that these boats are never ever going to touch the beach so why do I need a glass coating. The cedar veneer has sufficient stiffness and with a tighter radius of a narrow boat it would be even stiffer.

I also have some experience with 1/16 spruce Veneer (think of a guitar front and back) which is even stronger but may need 3 layers for a 3/16" hull and maybe a 1/8" deck.

BTW the cold moulding process used to be done with rows of staples. Now it's done with vacuum bagging on a sealed mould. Once the mould is made I anticipate a hull can be made in 1/2 the hours of cedar strip boat with ~ 20 less weight and about 1/2 the cost without the glass and resin. It won't survive much of a rocky landing but neither would an carbon surf ski.

The difficult parts will be finding a design worthy of the mould effort. I would not want to commit the time to a mould unless others would use the mould afterwards. During building the spiling (fitting) of the veneers can be tricky but not much more than fitting cedar strips.