: I have been resesrching wood kits to build a sea kayak. I have found 3
: different styles. The wood strip kit. A wood panel kit and one that
: stitches togeather. This would be my first attempt to build a kayak.

Daniel,

You may not realize this, but those are fighting words... "best" is a bit hard to define.

I am not positive that the last two types are distinct from one another.

Wood strip construction can leave you with a rounded hull and smooth transitions everywhere. Stitch and glue construction with plywood panels is limited to the types of shapes that can be built with single axis curved planes which intersect each other.

Strip construction tends to take a little longer... maybe twice as long to get the wood together... but this is only a portion of the the time needed to build the boat. Other major blocks of time are spent in epoxy fiberglassing and fitting out. These portions of the build are about the same regardless of the method above.

A third method of construction, the skin on frame (SOF) boat uses no fiberglass, only a wood frame lashed together and then a cloth covering soaked with a water proof coating like paint or varnish.

There are also methods for building folding boats and inflatable boats.

A good discussion with much more information is available on a resource which you can reach by clicking on this link: KayakWiki