: Am I crazy or can I bevel the edges with a block plan and still get
: a fair, tight fit?

Have you ever used a block plane before? How are your sharpening skills?

Bead and cove strips are not as fragile as you may have read. They can be fragile if they're machined that way, but they don't have to be. B+C strips have a larger glue surface area, and if you fit them carefully so that you have a good glue joint you'll have a solid shell with no gaps, even when you sand. Usually bevelled edges are back-bevelled so that the fit on the top is pretty, but then when you sand there are gaps to be had. If you don't open gaps, you will have gaps on the inside.

It's up to you. If you've never built a kayak before, don't have much woodworking experience, have never used a block plane before, and are new to sharpening, then go with bead and cove, unless your tolerance for gaps is pretty lenient and you deal well with frustration.

m