Being a furniture maker, I found the Strip very easy to shape (the S&Gs scare me).  Use lots of clamps to hold your strips tight to the forms and  following boads and you will be amazed at how little planning & sanding you will have to do.  Nick Schade talks about using fillers in the upswept bow and stern, I bent mine to follow the lines and it looks very slick.

I agree the Petral is a very sharp looking yak, but I am to big for it, so I made an Expedition Single.  Both have the same Guillmot lines, you can tell NS designed them all.

I am about to start my Petrel.  I also was taken by the lines of the boat and I look forward to building it.  I have built several stitch and glue boats.  They have been very quick and easy to build and the results have been excellent. 

I have been reading about the techniques of strip planking a boat and it seems to be very straight forward.  High curvature just means narrower strips.  If you like, I will let you know how my build goes; or perhaps we can compare notes if you decide to go for it. 

 Good Luck.

Has anyone tried using wiggle board for the cockpit ?

I have used it in the past when I have to make a tight radius.

The 3/8 mohagany plywwod takes a little extra to finish as the grain opens at the turn, but I think it might be a good alternative.

What do you think?