Paul said basically what I was going to say, but in far fewer words.

Unless you have some prior woodworking experience, stick with an onlay. Inlays require more precision.

To do either one, you first have to draw out a design. You then cut the design out of veneers. The next step for an onlay is to just glue it in place before fiberglassing the surface it's going to be placed on. I don't know the details of construction of a pygmy boat, so don't know when the best time to do this would be. Basically, wait until the panel(s) are fixed together with epoxy fillets or fiberglassed seams before applying the onlay.

If your heart is set on an inlay, the procedure is more delicate. You have to carve out a space in your plywood the exact same shape as and slightly deeper than the thickness of you inlay pieces. You could, as an alternative (depending on the design), cut holes out of the plywood and then fill them in with pieces of the inlay. The latter is the more difficult of the two. The veneers method requires far fewer tools, and looks the same.

I've attached a link to Chesapeake Light Craft's listings page of their designs for onlays and inlays. In the text before the items for sale, there are a couple of links. They roughly describe applying an inlay assuming you have an acrylic guide (if you make your own design, you'd be using either a stencil or pencil lines as a guide). The how-to given in the PDF is a pretty good outline for a beginner, but it doesn't go into the construction of the inlay itself.

-David W.

: Hi, well hopefully by this weekend I will be able to start building my first
: wooden kayak a pygmy tern 14. I just have a few questions. Before it gets
: here. I have a very limited amount wood working experience and very few
: tools. So thats my first question, what tools,best type of eletric sanders
: and ect. That will make the job easier, and be something I will need in
: future builds that I might not think about having? What would be the best
: way to inlay or onlay a kayak for a novice. And does onlaying or inlaying
: effect fiber glassingand epoxy. And any other tips that you think a first
: timer might need to know. Also do you need a special program to view the
: pictures on this forum? Well thats about it for now I'm sure I will have a
: ton of questions in the next few months. Thanks for any info.