Hey guy,
I'm 200 pounds. On my yak I put a shield of short strips on my deck work that was fancy wood work but not supper strong. I put in 3 ribs under it. I folded #6 F/G over, cut it with shears and then added a third piece over each rib. It gave it the over all strength needed. I sit on it regularly. Nice place to have coffee.

The ribs provide the overall strength I wanted with out adding the weight that would have been on it had I added whole sheets under that section.

Hey I'm going to second Shawn's suggestion. Give us a real name. Here at the wooden boat builders coffee clache were all pretty familiar and friendly.
I've built a few buckets and tubs for paddling, but my BBS buddies and their boats all have names.

!RUSS