Its been a few weeks since my last update, stripping the hull is a lot of the same task over and over so I figured I would wait to write a post until I had plenty of progress!

With the bow and stern held firmly aligned by only temporary supports, the next step is to add the "sheer" strips. These are the two starter strips at the widest point of the hull. These need to be aligned perfectly as they ultimately define the smooth curves where the deck meets the hull in the finished product.

Looking from the stern toward the bow. The sheer strip is the lower of the two pictured here.

To strip the hull one must temporarily affix it to the stations. This can be done in many ways, usually builders will staple through the strip and into the station. With this method the staples are removed once the hull is complete so that it can be sanded smooth. The staple method allows builders to move very quickly, it takes about one second to shoot a staple, however it leaves behind two tiny holes that will absorb epoxy later on and show up as dark spots. Also its impossible to get the staples lined up exactly the same every time, so you end up with a shoddy / crooked / slanted looking row of holes AT EACH STATION! The only time I would ever staple a boat would be if I was painting it.

Each strip must fit perfectly - in between the recessed areas of the bow and stern. If the strip is too long, it will bow out and cause an irregular curve in the hull. Too short and the strip will not meet its proper resting area in the bow or stern.

The method I use is invisible. I place a pin head size drop of hot melt glue under each strip and immediately press the strip firmly into place. The strip must be held for about 1 minute at each station to allow the glue time to cool and harden. The boat has 18 stations, so that's 20+ minutes per strip. The hot melt glue will hold tightly for sanding and fiber glassing operations, and when its time to remove the forms from inside the hull a few raps with a mallet will loosen the strips from the stations.

Gorilla Glue! This stuff is MESSY, but it works incredibly well for this application. I apply it to each strip and then flip the strip down and into place.

It should be noted that the Hot melt glue and staple methods only secure the strips to the stations. Each strip must also be glued to the previous strip as well. For that joint I prefer to use Gorilla Glue because it has a long working time, and its thick like honey and resists dripping and running. Gorilla glue also expands as it cures, filling any slight gaps.

I do not bother spreading the glue. Once the strip is pressed into place the glue oozes plenty to create a strong joint.

Each strip must be hand planed on the skinny sides to create a tight joint with the next/previous strip. Think of a wine barrel - each strip has a angle so the slats can go around a full circle and maintain contact with each other so the barrel holds water. The challenge with these strips is that the kayak is not a circle. The angle does not just change from strip to strip, but each strip requires different angles throughout its length, and if that's not enough, it needs that on both sides! I have a tiny hand plane (not pictured) that fits in the palm of my hand and is small enough that I can run my fingers along the strip to feel the angle rolling back and fourth while pushing the plane at the same time.

This is the last strip on this side that has to be fit between the bow and stern. The next few will only need to "nest" into the bow, and can run long over the stern (see next photo)

The top strip here will be planed down later to define the center of the hull

Gorilla Glue can be sanded, but the sander will ride on the high spots (the drips) and eat into the low spots (the wood). Since the wood is just under 3/16" thick, I need to be very careful with how much I remove during sanding. I prefer to use a hand scraper to remove the glue squeeze out. It took be about 45 minutes to catch up on both sides of the hull (exterior). I had to kill some time waiting for glue to dry before adding more strips so I did some scrapping ahead of time.

Here I've scrapped away 99% of the excess glue. Not bad fitting joints!

With the bow strips high enough to be "out" of the bow, the next 6 or so strips go really fast since both ends just hang long and will be trimmed later. I think I did three strips in an hour and a half. This is where the hot melt glue really shines, allowing each strip to be "clamped" in place against the station, with no clamps to be in the way and block me from adding more strips.

I will snap a straight line down the center of the hull once I strip past the mid point and use a plane and chisel to carve a straight line.

The second side will go a little slower, each strip will have to fit perfectly again, creating the keel.

To give a sense of time, the photos in this post were all taken during a three week period, with 80% of the progress being made during the blizzard weekend we just had. I would like to complete the hull by mid February.

The next steps will be finishing the hull stripping, LOTS of sanding, and preparing to fiberglass the exterior of the hull.

Thanks for reading!!