> You could also run full-length battens like Nick shows in his book for
> placing the diagonal strips in the chapter "Getting Artistic..."

this works best if you do not try to bend the strips much (or at all) i had a flat or "V"ed decks when i used this technique as shown in nick's book Bending the strips accross the deck is much more diffiecult than following the curves along the length of the boat. you could try steaming the strips you intend to bend first.

> Veneers don't sound too bad either.

Ive had good luck with veneers ahen carfully applied. you must pre coat the deck with epoxy then hold the veneer down very tightly to avoid any bubbles in the epoxy under the veneer. bigger pieces are harder than small ones. ive used a vacuum bagging technique to hold down a large veneer eagle on my baidarka and light (ash) patches on the deck of my Merganser prototype See the picture.

> Yes, it is possible. Look at CLC's old designs for the Severn and Yare.
> Both of these boats have "Tortured Plywood" hulls meaning that
> they're convex from stem to stern and convex from sheer to sheer.

> Plywood will more easily bend concave/convex than convex/convex. It's not
> really easy, but it is possible. The CLC Chesapeake has a 1-piece deck
> that is convex from sheer to sheer and concave from bow to cockpit.

I havn't built a CLC boat but would bet that the line along the top of the deck is straight unless the plywood flattens out before bending up at the ends. I did this on my first S&G kayak and it does work but not always flawlessly.

--eric