: Hi John
: Thanks for your fast reply. I have studied the building method and am aware
: of the function of the fiberglass and on traditionally built cedar boats
: it is proven that the fiberglass is very much needed. The only reason I
: dared asking myself the questing of ommitting is because I wondered if the
: harder and more rigid kind of wood that I am using and glueing with a good
: quality epoxy glue, might give the structure the rigidity needed.

: Arthur Jacobs

I have a Struer mahagony boat that is built by cold-molding veneers of various species over a mold - it has no fiberglass at all and is quite rigid. The grain is varied so it is sort of like custom plywood. The overall thickness is pretty low, maybe 1/4" max. I would guess it is more prone to puncture damage than a glass-sheathed boat, but it's stiffness and light weight (30 pounds for a 17' hull) are remarkable.

Re: the remarks about hardwood above, I believe I read that the microBootlegger prototype was made with 1/8" strips of walnut, so using extra thin strips of hardwood is clearly an option. It has carbon on the inside and glass on the outside as I recall - you should be able to find out what weight cloth was used and the actual thickness of the strips.