You want the strips to be "quarter sawn"

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=quartersawn+wood+boards+images&ei=UTF-8&fr=chrf-yff26

as opposed to plain sawn if at all possible.

http://www.czarfloors.com/rift_quarter_sawnhardwood.asp

IMHO it looks better, but more importantly most woods have twice the shrinkage/expansion due to relative humidity (RH) changes in the tangential direction as opposed to the radial direction. (The second link has an illustration of this.) This becomes particularly important during the build when one side of the hull or deck is glassed and there is a seasonal RH change before the other side is coated.

This is a good thing for the stripper builder. Typically we are purchasing 4/4 boards planed to 3/4 of an inch. Quartersawn boards usually are higher priced. If we purchase plain sawn boards and then rip them into thin 1/4" or 3/16" strips the result will be quarter sawn strips.