Hi all,
I think I’ve picked my winter project- a solo microbootlegger. I think mahogany looks really sharp on this boat so I might go with that over cedar. Then comes the slippery slope- given the added effort and expense, taking the time to book match strips seems like a nice additional touch.
While I have experience with estimating lumber needed for strip builds, this adds quite the snag.
First of all there seems to be some added waste- maintaining the linear orientation of the wood means trimming “overhang” versus using each strip to maximize coverage (hope that makes sense). And then there’s the matter of selecting boards to maximize effect, considering both the width of the lumber and design features of the particular boat. (I suppose you _could_ use a single enormous board and wrap full length strips around the hull and deck, but…) With a design like the microbootlegger you _could_ transition almost seamlessly from deck to hull, but this introduces the problem of where to start/stop the effect (board width will likely not allow a continuous waterline-to-waterline run of strips form the same board). You _could_ use the sheerline as a boundary line for starting/stopping strips from a single board, but this might spoil the really attractive slope of the deck into the hull.

You can see how my mind is a bit (pleasantly!) boggled.

I definitely don’t expect anyone to “solve” this for me, but I’m hoping some of you can offer some tips or important considerations that will get my wheels spinning in the right direction.

Thanks,
Patrick