: I want to build a strip planked single rowing shell. I can't find any plans
: or books for such a project so I turn to you with a few questions: 1.
: Would you think this project is more like a kayak or a canoe?
: What book would be most helpful?

It would be more like a decked canoe--which I guess is more like a kayak. You would likely have the hull held open by thwarts, and a fabric deck stretched over the font and back to reduce water coming in. That is very canoe-like.

It will be a shallow hull-not a lot of freeboard--so in that regard it is like a kayak.

: 2. I have found plans for a hard chine plywood shell at Chesapeake Light
: Craft. Could anyone suggest a method of converting a hard chine design to
: round bottom? Is it worth the trouble to do that?
It is not worth the trouble. the changes in displacement would require so many corrections that you would be better off starting a design from scratch with one of the hull design programs available.