I thought of including this in my original post but left it out in order to be brief. The 35 year old boat in question has some plywood bulkheads and stems, but is largely constructed using bent ribs. The 45 year old boat was built from a kit produced in England and then shipped to Canada for assembly. Yes the plywood seems different than your usual big box store grade. This construction also uses a number of ribs instead of cross frames. These 45 year old ribs are quite interesting. They are made up of 5-7 layers of wood and look almost like plywood that has been steam bent or formed during construction into a curve. So when you screw into it you don't separate the layers, you screw through them. My own ribs are composed of 1 and at the most so far, 2 , layers of wood. I have questioned the structural usefulness of the screws in the past and decided I was pretty much using them to hold the stringers in place until the epoxy cured. So about 10 years ago I started leaving the screws out and just epoxying the stringers in place using clamps. My oldest boat using this technique is 10 years old now and holding up just great with no problems. So to sum up....
I am not trying to talk anybody out of lashing, I may make a boat this way someday, it is just not my first choice right now. I build my boats using marine plywood for stems and sterns and some cross frames and also steam bend ash or fir for many of the ribs. I epoxy encapsulate the frame. I am not trying to say this is the best or only way to do things, it is just a system that appeals to me and has worked well in my experience in craft up to 45 years of age. There are many reasons for not going this route. (I would assume perhaps cost, also if you only have say, 3 ply plywood that can't be edge screwed, although epoxy alone might work here, etc) I offer my experiences only for those debating doing the same thing as me. Allan Brown
