It seems to me that you'd have more "hike-up" if you angle the cloth. By angling the cloth you'll be trying to make the 38" dimension follow a longer path over the hull.

Take the cloth straight down the middle, split the difference on each side, and use 3" bias-cut strips to tape the external seams. That bare 3/8" on each side under the tape won't make that much difference.

However, have you found that the 44" cloth is that much more $$? I wouldn't expect the difference in cost to be that much. (a quick check on Raka shows $4.25/yd for 6oz 38" and $4.90/yd for 6oz 50"). BTW, you mentioned Defender - are you buying glass from them? I bought their $2.95/yd 6oz glass once (for my Panache) and had trouble wetting it out. I don't know if it was a bad batch, but before glassing the deck, I bought some glass from another source and had no problems. I haven't tried going back to Defender again to try another sample. It just never seemed worth it.

Happy glassing,

Ross

: I have finally finished stipping my first kayak. I designed it using the
: Bearboat program. I'm now at the stage of planing and sanding and am
: looking into sources for cloth and epoxy. I've measured my boat's widest
: point (38 3/4"). Most 6oz. cloth comes in 38" wide rolls. So
: here's my question: If I turn the boat diagonally as shown in Nick's book
: will I make up that 3/4" and have enough without having to buy
: 44" cloth? The boat is 17'6" and maintains 38 3/4" for
: about 3'.
: Also, I just ran across 'Dynel' at Defender Industries' web sight, has anyone
: tried this stuff?
: I'll go ahead an take this time to say THANKS to everyones envolvment in this
: bulletin board. I view it regurally and have learned a great deal from
: your opinions and ideas.