So first off - is that "wrong?" Do most people continue fairing such that all of the strips are fully rounded-over with no flat spots?

Long ago and far away in another galaxy......

An "Expert" wrote a book which assumed everyone would have trouble aligning strip edges. And they did.

1/4" thick strips forced into place created this result. So, he told people to use a block plane to level the strips near the stems which looked like a little staircase. Sanders in this age were designed for flat surfaces but big disk sanders used in auto body shops could be used if only you had a 100 hours of experience before you attacked your strip hull. Otherwise, the auto body disk sander could turn a nearly fair rough strip surface into a rippled mess. Been there.

So, people hated sanding. So some had a poorly stripped surface and went over the whole thing with a block plane.

Sure it works, so does making fire by rubbing two sticks together.

An this is where "fairing" comes in. When you attack a surface with a block plane or a belt sander or a disk sander you are destroying the natural fair surface created by thin wood strips.

Now pro boat builders will say, "Of course, you have to fair a boat hull". Yes, when you have the new guy in the shop, who's given the five minute explanation of "sanding a hull", doing the task no one else wants to do, you'll have to bring out the long fairing boards. This is follow the leader training. When you are hired you're supposed to know what you're doing. You think most people go to school for this? And EVEN if they do they're taught by "professionals" who learned like the new guy.

Few people think about how to make it better. I like making things. I've always found if I didn't like working on something, it was because I was struggling, making no progress. This told me there was a problem to be solved.

My crusade for the last twenty years has been to make strip building easier by teaching people how to strip a hull and sand using a random orbital sander to reduce work and keep a naturally fair hull fair.

Back to my point about strip building. Use the natural tendency of the strips to create a fair hull by aligning strip edges and keeping strip in contact with the forms. THIS IS JOB ONE.

Even if you finish stripping your hull and find strip edge not aligned FIX the alignment now before sanding. And the hull will be fair and you will have less work in every successive step.

The "high" joints of the strip edges are minuscule, not the spine of the Rockies. The beauty of the random orbital sander is that it rides on high spots aggressively and is much less aggressive when a larger surface is in contact with the sanding disk.

If you hold the ROS lightly and flat against the hull, moving in small circles and letting the fair surface guide the sanding disk the surface will stay fair. You must use a 60 grit disk to quickly level high spots and create a uniform surface. Then you will only need to sand with 120 grit to remove the 60 grit cut marks. No need to fair an already fair surface.

If you learn how to use a ROS it will work fast and keep your hull fair.

Now, if you have problems aligning strip edges and keeping strips in contact with the forms lets address questions on how this is done.

“All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.” - Adlai E. Stevenson