: This is my first kayak build, Rob Macks' Fire Star. For purely
: aesthetic reasons I'd like to start stripping at the sheerline
: and continue straight to the keel. Rob recommends starting from
: both the sheerline and keel at the same time (football style).

: Seeing as this is my first build, does anyone think I'm opening a
: can of worms by starting only from the sheerline? Will I be
: regretting it by the time I reach the keel?

: Thanks,
: Darel

I don't think it matters. I would recommend that you lay a strip on the keel first to butt your strips against. Otherwise it would be best to do one side at a time and cut your keel line like Ted Moores shows in his canoe-building book. If you lay keel strips it's a nice detail, and in particular, it will help hide any imperfections in the way your strips line up from side-to-side. I would also recommend that you don't use bead-and-cove for the keel strips. You'll end up mostly butting ends of strips, and it's a bummer to have to try and file a cove into stuff.

m