There was an article in Wooden Boat Mag a bunch of years ago (5 or 7?) about using fishing line as a method of holding the strips while the glue dried. The author liked fishing line because he could cut it and the part in the seam would 'disappear'.

I have not tried this method, just read the article.

   I have seen articles using tape, and straps to hold the strips till the glue dries.

Go down the list and look for Building a scratch built canoe, by Spilinterz45.  He's a former cabinet builder. He did quite of job of posting pictures. You'll find that he used clamps, straps and bungees.

Also.....as I tell the wife, a man can never have too many clamps.

the short answer is 'yes' -- you can do strips without staples.  it does, however, elongate the process.

there are a number of specific techniques that can be applied....and they come into play at different times during the process.   the book http://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/boat-building-books-kayaking-dvds/strip-built-sea-kayak-nick-schade.html sold by CLC has an overall good treatment of the strip built process and a page or two on strip-less techniques.

any specific technique will accomplish two tasks....holding the strip firmly against the form and pushing the strip up along another strip.    however different techniques help deal with certain challenges such as no adjacent strip or not a lot of room around the strip....or lots of hold power required vs light pressure.

the basic approaches are:

- bands/bungees  - anchor holes are drilled in the forms (follorwing the ouside perimeter) to provide an anchor for bands/bungees....bands wrap out and around a strip and pull it back onto the form

- tape -  works well when there is another strip already well anchored and you want to close up any gaps between adjacent strips.....can also be used like a band

- hot glue gun  -- temporary bond of a strip to a form.....a bit difficult to remove but good for places with little adjacent room and where you have access to the underside upon completion to use a knife to break the 'temporary' bond

- clamps -- U-shaped wood pieces are clamped with c-clamps to the form and the opening of the U holds a strip against the form and the U shaped wood provides a clamping surface that the c-clamp can attach to the form.

- sacrificial stapled strip -- a few strips are stapled to provide anchor points.  when the structure is built around them (usually only to one side) the staples strip is removed and replaced with a non-stapled strip, usually held by tape and bands.

i would also recommend looking around the kayak forum http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi  which is mostly used by strip builders......a little search there will show up a number of pictures.

good luck!

howard

 Thanks for all the info.  It is what I love about this forum! 

Howard nailed it.

I just finished stripping a soloMicrobootlegger and used the "clamps" approach that he mentioned above. At each section I used the clamp to hold the strip tightly to the previously fastened strip. In between stations, I then used three, evenly spaced, pieces of the green 3M tape -it's for concrete construction and holds much better than the usual blue stuff. it does make a difference, use the green! 

On Nick Shade's site there are many great videos which you can take a look at that show many great building techniques, this being one of them. Look in the Free "How To" link... http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guillemot/

In short, it worked great and I don't have any staples to deal with, and the surface is nice and clean. 

Cheers!

Rob

Sorry, I'm note sure if I can edit my previous post. His name, properly spelled, is Nick Schade. It needed to be corrected!

Rob