: 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

Lots of questions, you'll have to order the cedar, couple of suppliers I know of: http://www.whitecedar.com/Canoe.htm , also http://www.newfound.com/strpinfo.htm

I don't use beed and cove but it sounds like what you're planning will work, you'll have to experiment a bit with the planner to only remove 1/32" and you may well have to push the strips thru the planner as the feed often won't work with really light cuts.

Using really thin strip and very light glass will end up with a light boat, also a fairly fragile one, though doubling the glass in high wear areas will help. The downside of glass that light is it can dent thru the glass into the wood. You'll need to enter and exit in water deep enough to not abade the glass. Collisions will definately have to be avoided. Can't do seriously light weight and have very high strength using common inexpensive materials.

Bill H.