Very interesting. I am intrigued with this type of construction. Is it
glued together and if so, what type of glue.

Regular Yellow glue. The whole thing gets encased in fiberglass cloth and
epoxy, so water "resistance" is not required.

Is the wood all pre-shaped and planed?

The bulk of the wood is white cedar rough and random... not especially good
quality... acquired through craigs list $1/bf. It's super-light and bends
well.

The wood was planed to a about 13/16 and then ripped to a thickness just shy
of 1/4". The ripping was done with a 7-1/4 skil-saw blade mounted in my
cabinet saw with a blade stabilizer. Quality of cut was not a concern as the
assembly would be planed/scraped and sanded to fare the hull anyway. This
is the one case where ultra-thin kerf actually results in a meaningful
savings of stock (even with 1 /16 in kerf, kerf losses were 20%).

With this cutting scheme, I having started with flatssawn boards and yeild
quarter/rift saw strips.

What are the gussets made of?

There are no gussets; it's a monocoque design. You may be looking at the
plywood forms.

Is that your own design.

No. Its a Guillemot, designed by Nick Shade.
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guil...emot/guillemot.
I am using his book:
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guil...building_books as a
primary source. The book includes data tables that allow you to "graph" the
cross sections (stations) used to make the forms. I reccomend that more same
people just cough up the $100 for preprinted plans.

I've read just enough about hull design to know that I would be way over my
head. The "art work", however, is mine. The nice thing about this design
methodology is that the strength comes form the fiberglass skin (insde and
out). This allows the builder to focus on primarily on aesthetics, allowing
for workability and weight. The accent woods are walnut and tubafor. The
cockpit recess is cherry and the edges of the bow and stern (the most
vulnerable contact points) are ash.

Very nice. Lots of work. Clean shop too.

Not really, but thanks. I just sewed the halves together this weekend. I
don't what to sound like I'm complaining, because I know that I am blessed
to have a 20x24 dedicated shop, but it's really getting old navigating
around 2 17' objects in the room... at least now I only have one 17' object
to circumnavigate. It's like 3 times as many steps to put something away
;-}.

-Steve