And don't forget the other skin options:

McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com) has 4 possibilities in three varieties.

Since these fabrics are already coated, you don't need to buy coating materials, just glue for sealing the seams and attaching reinforcements. all are 60 or 61 inches wide, so plenty of material for hull and deck with litlle or no piecing.

Search their site for "heavy weight polyester" and al these fabrics are on the same catalog page:

Vinyl coated polyester. This comes in 19 and 23 ounce weights at $2.57 and $3.06 a running foot respectively. That would be $46.25 and $55.25respectively for the skins for a 17 foot boat, figuring using 6 yards of material. (same math as the previous post)

vinyl coated nylon, 14 ounce, $3.40 a foot, or $61.20 for a skin.

Polyurethane coated nylon, 13 ounce $2.56 a foot, or $45.50 for a skin.

Note that the weights are for the COATED fabrics, so obviously the base textile material is part of that weight and the coating is the other part. And I have no way of knowing how much is from the coating. These are thick materials, though, with the nylons and the lightweight polyester being about 0.020 inches thick, and the heavyweight polyester being 0.027 inches thick.

Personally, I'm leaning towards trying the heavyweight polyester. When I get $60 for a trial ( including tax), I may order some.

The cost is barely above plain canvas, I'm not spending time on applying coatings, the fabric comes in colors, so I don't need to paint, and I don't need to mess with coatings that are smelly and possibly hazardous. I'm not sure how well these would heat shrink to remove wrinkles. That is something I'll have to experiment with, too.

Flexibility should not be an issue.

as for the decks, I can either use this material there, too, or do like Klepper and use a breatheable fabric on the deck. McMaster-carr has am outdoor polyester fabric which is water repellant ( on the same catalog page) which might be suitable. Again, I'd have to try it.

Hope this helps

PGJ