: Has any body got a clue if there is something like a maximum lenth to which a
: canoe can be built with 0.75 x 0.25 inch strips. And if construction wise
: there is a limit could it be increased by increasing the size of the
: strips? The reason I am asking is that I have plans of constructing and
: building a dragon boat to be crewed by 50. (double rows of course) The
: ideal length of this boat would therefore be about 25 meters. If the boat
: would have enough rigidness in some way or another the handling in and out
: of the water would be no problem.

: regards
: Arthur

While I am by no means a naval archetect, I think the size of this boat officially moves it from the class of "small craft". When talking about the thickness of the strips, the information you are really looking for is Scantlings. Luckily for all of us, there is a lot of information on this sorta thing published. While small crafts tend to not follow these Scantling "rules" because they no longer make sense, for this design idea they could definitely help. You could use 1/4" thick strips just fine, but you would need to back it up with much more Glass (or other reinforcing material) than what a lot of us use for kayaks.

I'd suggest you pick up The Elements of Boat Strength by Dave Gerr. This went a long way for me in understanding some of the strength requirements for different boat designs. More importantly, the scantling rules in that book should be able to help you understand what sorta thickness you need. You'd be specifically looking for the chapter on wood core boats~

~Johnathan