Many thanks Paul, lots of ideas there - I won’t quote them all to save space on the forum.

The stripping is taking longer than I hoped in calendar terms but in terms of hours worked it’s not too bad - for a retired guy I don’t seem to have much time to spare. I accept that for something new I have to repeat some work or experiment to work out any bugs I encounter - these have been about average for a new approach I think. Now I am into a routine I can trim, bevel and hang a strip in 20 minutes, a pair in an hour with cutting thickness planing and scarfing. But the method is more pernickety than I hoped it would be so it is not ideally suited to the just-one-boat-and-never-again builder.

I have read Hill’s book and it is a great source of data and inspiration. It is a great method and I am hoping to tackle a lapstrake Wee Lassie for my next effort. Iain Oughtred also has a book although his designs are a bit huskier than Hill’s.

However the method is not perfect. Hill himself has been heard to admit that it seems a lot of trouble for one boat, and even he still has problems getting the boat off the form due to sticking to the station molds.

I like to experiment with new ideas - this is probably a character defect but I like to go my own way! The idea I have for the lapstrake boat uses a row of staples (I estimate about 1 per 8 inches/200 mm) along the lower inside edge of each plank - except the garboard - so the planks will engage in a similar way to the lapstitch method by Chesapeake Light Craft. In that case a rabbet along the inner bottom plank edge does the job of aligning the planks. CLC claims that molds and bevels are not required, and I plan to go further and eliminate all - or at least most - of the stitches, using bungee cords to force the planks together. The staples are angled slightly so the planks press together. In experiments I have performed, the planks take the shape of the hull provided it is convex - stitches may be needed for the concave parts if any. It’s been in the works for a couple of years and I think I have worked out most of the bugs.

If it works I will post pics of the results, but I must finish Rose Lee (the stripper) first, and a another boat needs varnishing too - they are beginning to stack up . . .