Howdy Andrew,
Thanks for the feedback!
The idea got mixed up with the bottom thickness. It was meant to be 6mm with runners on the outside or 9mm with no runners.
It is probably impossible to build a deck as light as the original plywood one out of strip.
Remember the ply is 4mm and is a very light species. The strip deck will be about 5 and a bit with glass on both sides and the timber species would not be quite as light. You really would have to use Western Red Cedar or Paulownia to keep the weight down to near the original. The strips could be relatively wide because of the low curvature.
Weight saving is a case of getting every step right in terms of weight saving
I would recommend strips no thinner than 5mm and no thicker than 6mm. The glass would be 70gsm (2 oz) on both sides of the cedar with an extra layer on top of the deck on the side decks either side of the cockpit.
Another sneaky way is to epoxy seal and sand the plywood deck then pay someone to paint pinstriping on the timber then varnish over. It can be quite effective.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8539/8...f787cdd9_c.jpg
Actually something like this could work very nicely for a ply deck - you could do a constant margin around the deck in black or some other dark colour which will hide the ply join (which is why it is used on the speedboat here) and then get the remainder pinstriped just like the speedboat.
Would look pretty cool on a skinny boat like BETH.
MIK
Storer Boat Plans' photosets on Flickr