I'm not an expert by any means, but let me share my (similar) experience and solutions...

1. I used bungees to pull the strips into place. Sacrificial sheer strip is good idea, wish I'd done that.

2. I had great success using just a heat gun to pursuade the strips to bend and twist at the bow & stern

3. this was still not enough though, I ended up shaping a "female" shape of the end three stations and mounting it over the evolving hull shape, so that I could wedge the strips against the internal stations in those problem, concave, areas. (hope that's clear!)

4. after progressing around to the bottom of the hull, I had to secure some of the earlier strips (between the sheerline and the last-added strip) to the stations with hot melt glue, as they were not inclined to hold the shape they had when installed.

It was always a battle, and I'm not completely convinced it was worth the hassle! I too have a stubborn streak, and I'm sure that "cheater strips" would've helped. Maybe if we called them something less, well, perjorative, I might have been able to stomach the idea!

Also, Vaclav has a novel way to strip those difficult sections that are particularly hard to do without staples. This may be worth trying.

HTH

Les

: I am working on one of the One Ocean Kayaks Designs...the Cape Anne Double as
: my first boat. I do a good bit of woodworking, and don't particularly like
: the look of lots of dark staple holes, so I decided to try stapleless
: construction.

: So, I finally got around to putting on my first couple of hull strips last
: week. I started with a sacrifical sheer strip that I stapled, screwed,
: begged and pleaded to get exactly along the sheer line. I then started
: with a double coved strip, glue, regular (bead & cove) strip, glue,
: strip, glue, etc... I have been putting one strip on at a time and working
: on both the left and right of the boat. My problem is that I have 4 strips
: on each side, and I am already getting some (3/16 - 1/4") separation
: of the strips from the forms, mostly at the bow (1st 3-4 stations). I
: think this is due to the construction technique I'm using. I use
: 'L-shaped' blocks clamped to the forms w/ wedges to hold the strips down
: and against the form for the most of the stations in the middle. For the
: stations at the ends, I am using bungee cord thatI wrap around the 4-5
: strips twice (1/4" dowell to protect exposed cove), go through a
: drilled hole in the station, around the strips again, through the next
: station hole, etc. The wraps around the strips compress the new bead into
: the old cove. Going thru the station holes was supposed to draw the strips
: into forms. A couple of observations: 1) Something stronger than the
: 'L-shaped' blocks is needed at the boat ends to bend the strips down into
: shape.

: 2) Using the bungee cords the way I am is tending to take the curved stack of
: strips and force the middle away from each form because of the clamping
: pressure applied.

: 3) Why am I so stuborn and why won't I just give into using staples!

: Finally, the questions??

: --are there some stapless sites / construction techniques that I am missing??
: (without having to steam...I would really like to avoid this if possible.)

: --Any other ideas on how to keep these strips tamed and tight to the forms!
: The wood is redwood, by the way.

: --Is there anyone else building in the Cincinnati, OH area so that I could
: come and get some inspiration from you boat?!

: If you got this far, thanks for reading and thanks for all the great info
: I've already gotten from this forum over the past year!

: ----Will