: Paul
: Will 6 yards be enough for a 17' boat?
: Putz seems to advise 2 full lenghts, one for the hull ,one for the deck.

It depends mainly on two variables: the design of the boat and the width of the fabric. You want the underwater part of th hull to be smooth and seamless, so you need a piece of cloth that is at least as long as the boat. If you have any sewing skills at all (and that includes skills at getting someone else to do the sewing for you) you can frequently patch together the remnants to cover the deck. Time spent in planning the layout of the fabric will save you some money.

If you are stitching your skin into a single sock-like cover then it will be nice to work with wide fabric. You'll just wrap the fabric around the boat and stitch up along the center line on the fore and aft decks, trimming off the excess.

If you are stapling or tacking your fabric to the sheer chine, or gunwale strip, then you'll cut the hull fabric first, and piece together the remnants to cover the deck - stapling them onto the same attachment area as the hull fabric.

In this case, generally, your deck, from edge to edge, will be narrower than the circumference of the hull at any given point, so if you use more than half of your fabric on the hull you may still have enough left for the deck.

If you were to take your fabric and trace on it the amount usd by the hull, you would see a shape that looked like a long diamond, with the end points cut off. If you cut out that shape you'll be left with 4 triangles -- one from each corner. If the fabric is wide enough, the two triangles on each side will still be joined by a narrow strip of fabric that remained after the area by the cockpit was cut. you can cut through the center of this thin area to give you two forward pieces, and two stern pieces. Take the two forward triangles and align them so the outside edges, or selvage edges of the cloth are brought together. Sew these pieces together along the selvage edge and you'll have a trianglular piece that should cover the bow. Do the ame with the stern. You may need to add on patches of fabric to connect the bow and stern deck pieces.

: Do you suggest laying it bias on the hull using the excess for the deck?

You probably can keep the boat aligned straight on the fabric.

Before you buy your fabric, get an old newspaper and some tape. Tape together as many pages of the newspaper as it takes to make a long sheet the size of your proposed fabric. You can staple this (temporarily) onto your kayak's frame and cut it to size. This will make a template for later cutting your cloth. this will show you fairly quicky, and inexpensively, if you can get away with a single length of wide fabric.

Hope this helps.

PGJ