"People Desperately Looking to Weasel Their Way Out of Fairing?"

The genius, of the strip building method is that IF the wood strips remain in contact with the stations & stems, AND the edge of each new strip is aligned and glued to the previous strip, the resulting surface IS FAIR and perfect.

THE RESULTING SURFACE IS FAIR AND PERFECT!

NOTHING YOU DO WILL BENEFIT THIS PROJECT MORE AND ELIMINATE EXTRA WORK than taking all the time you need to insure each strip edge is aligned with the previous strip and each strip is in contact and remains in contact with the forms. If you do this, your hull will start off FAIR and you will need to do very little work to finish it! I cannot emphasize this enough.

A bladed tool has no business on a stripper hull and will introduce irregular cuts on a fair surface. A plane or spoke shave has a set depth of cut destroying a fair surface. If you don't believe that try using it on your glassed hull.

60 grit used on a ROS will level a stripper surface in no time. I rough sand my fill coats on my fiberglassed hull with a ROS using 60 grit. Try that with a plane? I don't think so. So learn how to use a ROS and you can forget about fairing.

Use a plane and I'll sure you'll need to work hard fairing with a longboard.

THE ONLY sanding needed with a ROS is to round the high points along the strip joints and to smooth the surface for finishing. Each strip is perfectly fair, just as a plywood panel on a stitch and glue boat is perfectly fair.

The less you do to this surface the more it will remain fair!

A random orbital sander works like no other surfacing tool by riding/cutting high spots most aggressively, utilizing disk speed and disk grit, instead of high motor power and tool weight. The round pad and random stroke will not cut deeply into a surface as long as the full pad is held FLAT against the work surface. These features make the random orbital sander ideal for sanding the complex curves of a stripper.

The ROS can move in any direction , change speed and grit to refine cutting action.

IF the ROS is HELD FLAT against the wood strip hull surface, it will produce a fair surface by reinforcing the already fair surface created by the strips.

THIS IS CRITICAL TO SUCCESS.

The ROS is moved over the surface in an overlapping circular motion, until a uniform sanded surface results. Moving the ROS over the hull surface in a circular motion will follow the curved surface, with the sanding disk riding on the high spots. No other power sander does this as well as a Random Orbital Sander. Put your energy into learning how to sand with a ROS and you will not have to fair.

Some people have fun using a plane.

Some people make fire by rubbing two sticks together,

Others use use a lighter.

This is a big project, way add work?

Your choice is yours