whoa.... first one? GREAT job, it looks beautiful! Thanks for the feedback too :)

J

: I'm building my first kayak, a Great Auk. Like you I didn't care so
: much about the build time, rather I wanted a good result while
: trying to keep the cost down. I cut all my strips but did not
: use bead & cove. I also decided I did not want any staple
: holes. I'm glad I chose this route. I have not found beveling
: strips to be difficult at all. I takes a few strips to figure
: out a system and away you go. I ended up with very tight joints
: and didn't need any filler. One consideration is how much and
: what kind of design work you are planning. I chose to use a lot
: of pin striping which you have to bevel anyway. If you use
: b&c at transitions, remember that as you plane and sand
: down, your joint moves and stripe widths may grow or shrink. The
: Great Auk has a lot of flat deck so that made it easier for my
: decisions. I can see where it might be nice to have a trough to
: run glue in but applying it to the flat edge is not bad. I
: spread the glue out with a finger anyway to get good coverage,
: maybe something you wouldn't be able to do with b&c. For
: stapleless building, strapping & taping each strip every few
: inches is required and protecting the b&c edge is more
: difficult than a square edge. Just some thoughts.