After five years of closet coveting I finally ordered and received a set of Shooting Star plans. This is my first stripper but my seventh boat to include a reasonably complex glued lapstrake sailboat project I finished last summer. I have built from kits, plans and not much more than a drawing fueled by lots of encouragement from web builders.

I want to build a very light Shooting Star for surfing the crazed waters of the Triangle off Tybee Island, GA. My plan is to use 3/16" Northern white cedar strips but cant seem to find a supplier even after doing a pretty thorough search. I really don't want to rip my own strips. Rather SWMBO would appreciate me not ripping my own strips. It's a time/mess lets keep the nice lady who indulges me happy thing. I tend to get lost in my builds to the detriment of the family.

I was considering ordering 1/4" bead and cove strips and reducing them to 3/16" by taking 1/32" from each side of the strip with a friends thickness planer. Would the bead and cove still mate well? Is the weight difference of the finished boat just not that great to substantiate the extra effort?

Additionally I have used 3.25 oz glass from RAKA on Nick's surf kayak and Eric's double baidarka with great success. But these are both S&G boats. Is 3.25 oz glass heavy enough for strip building or should I stick with 4 oz s glass? We pretty much don't have rocks here but we do have lots of oysters and collisions with other surfers on occasion.

Jim