Hi Bill,

: Of course that would work, I wonder though if the ribs/fasteners would be
: lighter than the glass skin. Each would likely have about the same
: strength, the glass most certainly would be faster to apply.

: With my current project I was amazed at how much weight the fasteners alone
: added for just the floorboards.

Weight wise I don't know... Metal is heavy. The weight of each little screw or bolt may not seem a lot but they add up fast. The fasteners used on the PAL were common copper nails just peened over on he inside, no roves. The ribs were steamed elm (according to the catalogue). The boat is 10.5' long 48" wide and weighs about 100 pounds. There is a LOT of solid white oak parts on it (trunk, stems, knee braces, transom, etc). She's pretty rugged. What's amazing is how good a shape the boat is actually in considering she sat uncovered under a tree for 60 year (literally). It was forgotten and left to rot but never did. I had a friend of mine from Rhode Island who's worked on and sailed a lot of old wooden sailboats (including quite a few 100 year old Herreshoffs). He said that other than replace a few trim pieces (one seat) all it needs is to be cleaned up and revarnished. The wood, especially the cedar hull planks were in remarkable shape. Two planks need to be replaced because about 5 years ago a tree branch fell on it and poked 2 holes in it. It was kept slightly off the ground and the wood was allowed to breathe.

I wonder how a one of todays wood/epoxy/fiberglass boats, either strip or plywood would have faired given similar treatment... Here's my take: 60 years? No way... I've seen it first hand. My wife's grandfather built a strip canoe about 10 years ago. It was simple but nice but he never used it much (he had 6 others...?!?!). So it ended up sitting outside, uncovered next to their garage. First the varnish absorbed as much UV as it could then flaked off leaving the epoxy exposed to the elements. Then the epoxy degraded to a point where moisture was getting into the wood. The fiberglass was peeling off in sheets. The wood trim was completely dry rotted. To get it back in any kind of usable shape you would have to have completely reglassed it at least. Something to be said for the old build methods...

Dan