On the left side are two scarf cutting jigs, which are essentially just task-specific miter boxes. A couple of 3/4" x 3/4" pieces of scrap are nailed to the base board, and then an angle cut is made very carefully with the pull saw with true vertical orientation being the aim. You only have to be so careful the one time, after that it's the jig's job to ensure easy and accurate repeat cuts.

On the right is the bevel jig. Nail one 3/8" or so strip to the base board, then a second using one of your cedar strips as a width gage.

All done, nuthin' to it. Now let's put it to work.......

Do what works best for you.

Anyway, here's why we're having this discussion: This next strip doesn't want to fit very well, see that edge gap? The square edge needs some sort of modification in order to lay flush with its neighbor, or else we're never going to get a useable glue bond. And it ain't gonna to be no bead & cove, either...

Unless it's a pretty radical curve you're fitting to, the bevel is typically going to be so slight as to be almost indiscernible. The natural tendency is over-bevel, and it's not much better than no bevel since the edge gap is merely moved to the inside of the curve, where you don't see it . . . until later. So it's best to err on the side of not enough bevel, then you can always take a bit more off to get a proper fit. Remember the old saw: It's always easier to take some more off than put some back on.

Work in two-foot segments, using forms to measure. I'll hold the strip in place, see about how much bevel I need between a couple forms, and then using where my fingers are holding the strip as a marker, lay the strip in the jig with that part centered and hit it with the plane. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

This works like everything else in boat building: It's slow and tedious at first, but with practice comes speed and efficiency. Take all the time you need to get a good fit, and don't worry if it takes a freakin' hour; you'll soon require only a few minutes for each course of strips, and it's even fun.

Note the 25-lb bag of bird shot draped over the brace on the work stand. It makes the lightweight stand feel solid as a full size workbench. Get a couple bags at a sporting goods store that deals in gun stuff, they're handy as heck. And if you look closely, just below the bag-o-shot lies a leveling shim (shallow wedge). It takes any wobble out of the stand. 

Suffering wiggle and wobble in your work benches and stands is Epic BS. The fastest, surest, and easiest way to make giant strides towards expert woodworking is dealing with it.

Behold the result. Much better. Life is sweet.  

But here I'm building an 18-foot long boat, so I'm going to have to use a strip stretcher. I call it a scarf jig since it causes cuts that are perfect for making scarf joints. Scarf joints are ramped, or angled, joints that maximize the glue bonding area of the two pieces to be wedded so the marriage will be a long and prosperous one.

With any luck at all, the photo explains everything so I can quit typing about it right here.

The green tape is applying clamping pressure to the freshly glued in  topmost strip, to help make the bond tighter and more secure over its entire length. It will be removed before the next course of strip is added, which in turn will get like treatment.

If you hold your first strip-built boat up over your head in broad daylight, chances are you'll see plenty of sunlight peeping in through myriad small gaps. It's okay; the boat is still structurally sound. But as you increase the number of boats you build, so shall you decrease the number of such gaps.

 Green 3M Scotch Tape is just exactly like the more popular blue tape, except for one little thing: It stretches. This makes a world of difference, enabling it to be used for curvy masking or stretchy clamping. Beats me why blue tape is even made at all.

Now's a fine time to be mentioning it since it's way too late, but when you're milling your strips it really pays to be exceedingly careful to keep strip width and thickness as constant and consistent as humanly possible. This ought  to be a really good example of why if you think about it.

Note the Little Square Thingy in the foreground; sometimes strips don't want to lay snugly against one form or another as they ought. There's only one reaction worth having to such rebellion, and that is to insist. So the Little Square Thingy with its slot feature is clamped to the form, and the recalcitrant strip is given a wedgie. Problem solved.

They're easy to make and infinitely handy to have; for instance, I also use 'em to hold strips to the forms loosely while fitting the bevel and stuff like that, kind of like extra hands. Cut a mess o' 3" x 3" pieces of cheap doorskin plywood, stack a bunch together, drill a hole in the middle of the stack. Then saw in a line from one edge to the holes, do it again, and presto: a fistful of Little Square Thingies. I tend to keep a dozen and a half on hand, they get along nicely with spring clamps too.

The Shinto rasp. Worth its weight in gold. Whenever I show it to a visitor and let 'em have a go with it, another one gets sold. It's way handy for all woodworking, not just boat building. Takes off wood like nobody's business without clogging and leaves an astonishingly good surface behind that's ready for sanding. One side is coarse, the other fine. Up close it looks like it's made of hacksaw blades.

They're available at all woodworking tool purveyors, but I prefer to get mine from CLC since John Harris personally introduced me to it. In fact, I get lots of my stuff from CLC. I love that outfit, and recommend 'em to noobs and veterans alike. About $30.