MacGregor Sailing Canoe under construction at Eskimotom.com

Glued Lap Construction Wood Boats

Glued lap is a somewhat more difficult boat building process than stitch and glue and closer to strip building. It is more time intensive. Glued lap and strip building require similar set ups, that is offsets lofted, molds created and set on a strong back. One could use the same set up and build one of each. The boat will weigh more than a smooth skin model. This is the style of construction outlined in the Tom Hill and Ian Oughtred books.

Glued Lap
Glued lapstrake is a contemporary method of building traditional lapstrake boats. Epoxy replaces cinch nails or rivets used to edge join the planks lengthwise. Like strip built boats, glued lap construction relies on forms when hanging planks and stems to attach them to at the ends. In addition, some kind of hog keel or keelson to land the garboard planks helps significantly in aligning these bottom planks. The end result is a beautifully styled traditional looking boat with no evidence of nails or rivets and doesn't require ribs for strength like traditionally constructed models.

Plywood is often used instead of traditional planking in some lapstrake designs. Glued plywood lapstrake is a fairly simple technique, combining time-proven designs producing a strong, durable boat, and quite light for its size. These are quite do-able by the amateur, though not instant boats by any means. There is a lot of work getting the planks shaped properly and there is plenty of glue that needs cleanup between the laps. This produces a boat of traditional form with advantages for modern boating over traditional lapstrake.

In the thinner dimensions, high quality marine plywood is stronger than conventional planking of equal thickness. This can be attributed to the cross wise lamination of veneers. Thickness as result can be proportionally reduced when interpreting traditional plans. Plywood thickness has its limitations with respect to the minimum bending radius. It is feasible to cut the individual planks of a lapstrake hull out of plywood sheets.