: I have recently finished my strip built 17" Prospector canoe. Did it all
: from scratch and by the book. Glass sheated inside outside. Had to build
: it of tropical hardwood, because good cedar is not available here in
: Thailand. It is a fine goodlooking boat but because of the material it is
: kind of heavy. Now I want to start building the Petrel and to reduce the
: weight, I wondered if I could ommit the sheating and still have enough
: stiffness. Considering, that it is a kayak, so it is a monococe by itself,
: that I will be using the same hard fine, long grained Iron Wood (Takian
: Thong local name), that I glue the strips with good filling epoxy glue
: instead of the latex I used on the prospector.
: Has anybody built like this before or have an idea if the result would be
: staisfactory?

: Regards
: Arthur Jacobs

If you compare the kayak/canoe strip building method to conventional boat strip building methods you'll see that to eliminate fiberglass sheathing/frames you need planking to get near a square section ie: thickness of the strips has to near the strip width. Doesn't have to be square but perhaps thickness to width of 1:2. So for a 3/4" wide strip it would need to be around 3/8" thick. You certainly won't gain anything going this way the glass skins with fairly thin strips will be alot lighter.

Bill H.