: In building a strip kayak, can I use (marine-grade) plywood strips in place
: of solid wood? I am thinking that, by using plywood, I might be able to
: get by with using thinner strips resulting in a lighter weight boat

You can use plywood for your strips. I'm not sure you will save greatly on weight, but you will get a slightly different effect.

First, all the strips will be much more even in thickness than strips you might cut yourself. That is a plus. Also, the surface of the wood is flawless and does not need to be sanded.

If you use strips which are 5/8 or 1/2 inch wide, and put a bead and cove edge on these you can do the jobe with smaller angles at each joint.

Using staples would be a travesty. You don't want to poke a lot of holes through that plywood. That would be ugly. So, clamps are the way to go when assembling.

If you can work neatly when gluing, and gently scrape off the glue runs, rather than sand them off, you may bew able to get away with not sanding the hull at all. I wouldn't try to round the edges. You would jsut cut through the thin veneer and leave dark, ugly, seams. I think a better "look" would be the multichine look. That would cut down on a lot of sanding time.

If you try this, send some pictures of what the process looks like.

PGJ