Peter, don't let all these naysayers discourage you from the direction
you're heading. Iain Oughtred's designs and the boats built from them are
very highly respected in the professional boat building community. His and
similar boats built from high-quality thin plywood with glued laps can be
damned fine boats. For another designer's take on it, look for example at
Tom Hill's superlights, which he's been building for tens of years. He has a
little beauty of a one-man canoe that he used to show off in his WoodenBoat
magazine ads by holding it over his head on the fingers of one hand.

Back issues of WoodenBoat magazine have copious commentary on the techique,
comparing it to solid wood construction and giving it high marks. Glued-lap
construction results in an essentially monocoque structure, giving
equivalent strength without requiring the quantity of framing that
conventional solid wood lapstrake construction requires, and resulting in
less wood movement as the boat takes on and loses moisture.

That's not to say that it's superior in all respects - some people just like
building in solid wood, and prefer the aesthetics. If I were to take on a
similar project, I'd probably eschew glued-lap plywood in favor of something
like Alaskan yellow cedar over locust frames, just because it's such a
lovely wood to work with hand tools and I like the color and grain. And I
just like riveting, what can I say. And as someone else said here, just a
tiny bead of sealant in the laps easily makes up for less than
perfectly-planed laps. But if I chose an Iain Oughtred design - and one or
two of them have sorely tempted me - I'd use his preferred construction
style.

Up here in Port Townsend, Washington, you almost can't walk down the
sidewalk without having to elbow a wooden boat builder out of the way. If
you polled them about glued-lap plywood in small boats, I'm willing to bet
that just about all of them past the apprentice phase of their careers would
say, "Sure, why not? Works fine."

I'm a long-time wooden boat owner myself (41', carvel planked of teak over
ipol frames), and I've also built a conventional lapstrake Herreshoff pram,
planked with Port Orford cedar, so I'm clearly in the solid wood
construction arena with my own boats, but I wouldn't hesitate to take on a
glued-lap plywood small boat if the right design came along. And maybe
someday it will.

To the naysayers, a good friend of mine, a boat builder himself among a vast
number of other marine skills - you'd recognize his name if you followed
traditional sail - says "There are only three 'only right ways' to do
anything."

Good luck finding a builder in your region,

Tom Dacon

To you others on this thread - how many small boats have you built? Come on
now, 'fess up.



"Akita" wrote in message
...
Dnia Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:38:47 +0200, Steve Lusardi napisal(a):

I'm afraid you have missed the point. (...) do
not start this project unless you have the resources, dedication and
personal discipline to complete it. (etc., etc.)

Good advice is always appreciated. Thank you.


Peter

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*** no offence meant, no offence taken ***