If I recall correctly, the layout allows you to cut the sheets in half the long way before scarfing them together. That will make them much easier to handle. My own experience is that butt joints are cleaner and much easier to do, and plenty strong enough for our purposes. You can see examples of both on the kayak pages of my site www.twofootartist.com -Wes

Oops, I meant my comments to go onto another post. -Wes

I used cedar on my 17LT.  The only problem that I had was trying to get it to go through the router table smoothly. It was the only light wieght wood at the big box store in town.