: . . .In a sea kayak I prefer a boat that goes
: straight without much of an argument. No real right or wrong here, just
: personal preference.

Take a look at some of the baidarka designs. They tend to be slim. long, fast, straight-tracking, and great in open water. If you can get a copy of the book "Baidarka", by George Dyson, you'll find it to be an entertaining read.

Baidarkas are historically skin-on-frame designs, but any such design is a natural for strip construction. Plot out the frames for a SOF kayak and then reduce them by the thickness of the wood strip you wish to use. These become your buildign forms. You'll have fewer forms, and you'll space them a bit further apart, so you won't be able to use really short strips. Probably need 2m or 6 foot strips as a minimum length. Otherwise the building process is the same. If you use full length strips you'll not see any difference in construction.

Since SOF designs tend to be hard-chined the stripping will not go through severe bends. Let it end at an edge, then strip the next side separately. It should be a very fast process to lay out the strips and glue up one face at a time, letting the excess length of the strips overhang the forms until the glue is dry. Then trim off the overhang and strip the adjacent side of the boat.

I know throwing another idea into the pot when you are trying to decide on just the few current ideas is going to complicate things, but why not?

Good luck with your project. Remember: Whichever boat design you pick you'll just be setting yourself up to build another design which is just a bit different, at a later date. It is addictive. May as well pick two or three designs now

PGJ