I'm not clear how you plan to support the kevlar during the layup.
Usually such boats are made using a vacuum bagging technique in a female
mold...way too much work for one canoe. But I have seen descriptions of
building a kevlar canoe where the kevlar and resin is layed up over a
male mold that is built from strips fastened to section molds. See the
book "Building Your Kevlar Canoe by James Moran". I think that this will
work ok if you don't mind a canoe that isn't quite perfect on the
outside of the hull. Personally, I think wood strip consruction, though
it also has its drawbacks, produces a very beautiful boat. Unless you
are really looking for something really light weight, wood strip seems
like the best method. But you may have different ideas.
I believe that the materials cost of building a kevlar canoe would
exceed that of a wood strip canoe but the resale value would be less.
That may or may not be a factor for you but keep in mind that once you
build one, you will want to build another.
And to answer your question about wood thickness, most canoes like you
are talking about use 1/4 inch thick strips but I have built boats using
3/16 inch strips to try to save weight.

sebastian wrote:
thanks to the folks who provided feedback on my lofting question.

Im going to build the ranger {15'} instead of the prospector (16')
canoe, and im going to construct it with a kevlar-carbon layup instead
of wood strip. Can anyone suggest the best way for me to adjust the
size of the stations to accomodate the thin, uniform thickness of the
composite layup compared to the wood. I'm going to use 3 layers of
5oz kevlar and one or two layers of unidirectional carbon so im
guessing it will be about 1/8"-3/16" thick max. how thick is the wood
stripping and is it relatively uniform in thickness ie can i just add
1/2" to all my patterns and have a decent work around?

also i would like to not use foam core in my layup for simplicity and
minimizing weight...but will the canoe sink like a rock if its swamped
if its just kevlar/carbon/epoxy? I am wondering if i should use a
1/8" atc core cell between layers of kevlar...for buoyancy and
stiffness.