first, let me thank everybody for your reponses....i am impressed/hopeful about targeting a boat in the 33# category. dan, that is an incredible picture of one-handed handling of the boat without looking in anyway like you are subjecting yourself to undue stress.

ok...so as i said, this is a rescue boat (i got all the material from an abandoned project in somebody's garage). but the strips that i got are all 1/4 inch bead and cove. so my question is, can i plane them down 1/16 to make them 3/16 by simply picking one face for all the strips and running them through an appropriately calibrated finish planer. or do i really need to take off 1/32 on each side. i enjoy building but don't have much in the way of tools but appears i can pick up a used planer for around 100 bucks.

i really would like to 'go for it' with respect to weight.....but do not want to start with new material...sort of defeats the purpose.

appreciate the advice.

howard