> An associate of mine claims that a perfectly faired smooth hull surface is
> best achieved using a 2 foot board wrapped with sand paper attached to one
> side. Would a cabinet scraper work better than this?

No. The 2 foot long board covered with sand paper does a different job. It helps to even out the hills and valleys that occure over large areas of your boat. since it bridges the low areas while abrading the high ones, it levels things off rather well. (If you could control a 2 foot long cabinet scraper then there might be some competition)

After the finish is level a cabinet scraper can be used for very fine smoothing. Some people use a cabinet scraper first, to scrape off globs of glue. I use a cheap paint scraper for that task.

Hope this helps

Paul G. Jacobson