: I'm making mental notes on building a historic hull design from
: Kayaks of Greenland (not one you've already surveyed Bryan) with
: a hard shell, and I'm trying to calculate whether it would be
: cheaper to build it of strips or plywood. I've never built with
: plywood before, so I have a couple of questions.

: Is it worth it pay the significant significant upcharge for 4x10 so
: that I'll only have to do one scarf on the sides of the hull, or
: is it fine to buy 4x8 and do two? Because of the overhang at bow
: and stern I'll only need that one piece on either side to be
: close to 18', it seems an unnecessary expense to pay the premium
: for the longer material.

I wouldn't pay extra...it's easy enough to match the wood closely enough to make it look good. I have always used simple butt joints for all of my boats and never had a seam break...I always manage to break them in other places but never a seam. ;)

: Since I haven't drawn up the plans yet I have no way to calculate
: the amount of plywood I would need to make the thing. I've done
: strip before, and I can make an awfully good guess on that. A
: Night Heron would be a little bit bigger, probably, so can
: anyone tell me how many sheets they purchased to built a S+G
: Night Heron or S+G Guillemot?

I used 3 sheets of 4x8' 4mm okhume for my S&G Night Heron. Just out of curiosity, what price are you looking at per sheet for the 4x8' stuff?

Robert N Pruden