> As I drove home last night I came up with several method of avoiding
> gluing.

> The basic idea is the same as joining the deck to the hull. "Tape"
> the strips together and then seal the inside wood with epoxy. The
> seal coat soaks into the seams "gluing" the strips together.
>

> Now to find some suitable "tape".

How about strips of very lightweight fiberglass cloths soaked in resin. Something like 3/4 ounce or 1 ounce glass such as used for models.

Someone was doing a stapleless assembly method using flat fabric band clamps to hold the strips until the glue set. I suppose you could do the same, dry fitting several strips, clamping them in place then ``taping'', either perpendicular to the strips, (parallel to the band clamps) or inline with the strips. Running the glass tape in line with the strips seems like a very slow process. You would have to fit, clamp in place, and then sand the two ( or maybe 3) strips before applying the glass tape. When you finished that you would have a section of a hull that you would slowly build on. When the last strip is fit, your hull would already have a complete layer of glass on the outside, and be ready to remove from the forms. Or you could put a second layer of glass on first.

Assuming you use some other type of tape, I'd look at taping the inside, and epoxy sealing the outside. I think the way the joints are made, you would get more of a funneling effect, particularly where the strips go around bends, allowing more resin into the joints. With flat edged strips this is obvious, with bead and cove the effect might not be so dramatic.

Sounds like it might be slow to do, and more messy. Also sounds like this might give rise to a discussion on whether the excess glue soaking into the joints is as strong as glue applied there purposefully.

Without something firmly holding all those strips together, sanding them before putting on a sealing coat of epoxy could be a mess. Otherwise, sounds like you'll seal the wood and joints, and then go back and sand things smooth, and then seal it again.

If you have some ideas that can get around the problems, let us know.

Paul Jacobson