: Any reason why "Thompsonized " wood is not used for building the
: frame? There are a lot of scraps of lumber used as pallet separaters that
: are free at Home Depot and like stores. Also lumberyards.

A few reasons: The sawdust from pressure treated woods is generally full of whatever material was used to keep the wood from rotting. These chemicals can be pretty nasty if you inhale the sawdust. If you work with this material, use a very good particulate respirator. Some pressure treatments use oils or waxes that would keep epoxy resin and some other glues from bonding to them. The base material is usually a pine variety, which would make pressure treated woods a heavier alternative than cedar. Unless the stuff is free, it is probably more expensive than plain pine and a quart of boiled inseed oil for coating it. There are probably other reasons. If this is what you have around, wear a respirator when you cut it, and go for it.

: Any one ever use Sunbrella Boat Canvas as a skin? It comes in colors!!
: Available pretty cheap.

I understand Sunbrella is somewhat "breatheable" meaning that it is water repellant, but not completely waterproof. When used as a boat cover, or an awning, rain runs off, but if it was used as a hull material you would still have to coat it with an impermeable material -- which would probably mean hiding the nice colors under a coat of paint. If you want a precolored hull go for some of the polyester-reinforced PVC materials available. About the same price as sunbrella materials I think. McMaster-Carr has a sunbrella material in the $12 a yard range and the polyester/pvc material for $9.18 a yard ( they sell by the running foot) try www.mcmaster.com and search for these three words: heavy weight polyester

Decks are another matter. I'm considering using something like sunbrella -- canvas awning material from the local fabric store -- for a deck, though. Like the Sunbrella it is nicely colored and has a good UV resistant finish -- and it cost about the same as plain canvas, so I come out ahead. Just stretch it on the frame. No painting. Klepper uses a deck material made from hemp and cotton which breathes. The advantages of such a breathable material, as extoleed on the Klepper website sound intriguing. (www.klepper.com)

Hope this helps.

PGJ