> shawn all the squirts i have seen or heard about have been glass only. why
> are you planning on a cedar strip version, and are they as durrable, easy
> to build, inexpensive etc?

Well, maybe it's a little bit more of a playboat than a squirt boat...but...

Cedar strip will be light weight, easier to build than any other method, and inexpensive.

I believe I can make it as durable or more durable than an all-glass boat.

Wood is much stronger in compression (by weight) than composites. Composites are much much stronger than wood in tension. By making a wood-core boat, I think I can build it lighter, yet stronger than solid glass.

Wood strip will let me build a single boat without too much effort, but a second boat wouldn't be too hard. With a woodstrip boat, I can easily build a set of forms that I can build my boat off of. With a solid composite boat, I'd have to either build a mold, a plug, or both, that would take significantly more time than a set of forms. This would probably be the way to go for 10-20 or more boats, but for only 1 or 2, I think I could save time and expense by going wood-strip. I'd also like to use some kevlar inside the boat for impact resistance (per George Roberts' construction methods) and I should be able to use less kevlar (2-3 layers) rather than the 4-5 layers I'd probably put in a composite boat.

(Note that I use composite in this context to mean a boat build with only glass/kevlar/carbon/etc. and resin. Wood-strip boats are actually a composite as well, but for the sake of discussion, I just called them wood-strip boats)

Shawn