Hugh,

If you haven't already drawn up the templates for your forms I highly recommend buying the plans from Nick. Getting the forms accurate is highly important, and the cost would be a small portion of what you will be putting into the build.

As to the strongback length, if the situation is similar to what I found with my Night Heron it will depend on how you attach the end forms to the strongback.

In locating the forms I would go against the method Nick shows in his book. Nick says to locate each form so that the edge nearest the near end of the kayak is right on the station line. This works, but as you get near the ends of the kayak the strips only contact the edge of the forms at the edge nearest the kayak end, creating a gap that tends to make the staples create large holes in the back of the strip as they are driven in. If you are building with 3/16 thick strips (which I recommend) it will also tend to distort the line of the strips near the ends of the kayak. Instead, locate each form so that the edge farthest from the near kayak end is right on the station location. This means that you will have to shape the edge surface of each form to match the line of the contacting strip. This may sound like a lot of work, but it mainly affects only the forms near the ends and actually goes quite rapidly. This approach makes the strips adhere to the forms much better. If I ever build another stripper I will do it this way.

Len Thunberg