: Say Tom, how did you like the skin on that nifty kayak?

Easiest skin I've ever made. During construction, the one piece PVC hull is
held tight around the gunwale with shock cord and the one piece deck is glued
to it. The ends of stem/stern are slit, and butted together. Next, 1" wide
strips of PVC are glued over the ends.

2" Velcro is attached along the deckridge, and along a 6" flap. The Vecro is
a component of the closure system, and is used in conjunction with the deck
rigging shock cord to keep the deck closed and secure. The 2" Velcro actually
creates a fairly waterproof seal.

The skin attaches to the underside of the coaming base plate with Velco.
When the deckridge is cut open, the shock cord is removed. In addition to
shock cord, I used double-sided tape to secure the skin to frame during
construction, but won't use it in the future due to the mess it makes.

The only downside is the fact that there are some small wrinkles in the skin
between the chines and gunwales, near the center of the hull. I consider it
a fair trade for the simplicity of making this skin. Even this will improve with experience.

In summary, no sewing, very little gluing, 2 very small end seams, no zipper
or lacing. With practice, this will be a one day project, two at the most.

I've made my last sewn/coated folding skin !

Thanks for asking, now get busy on that PVC frame.

Tom