Thanks, ya'll!

I used the nylon on this one for durability, as dinks often take a lot of abuse. I'm hoping the skin won't loosen much or at all when it gets cold and wet. I did pull it very tight, but I also soaked it down with water while skinning it. It's much tighter now that it's dry.

Polyester is not utterly, absolutely, stable, but much more so than nylon. I usually skin boats with 8oz poly, which I get from George Dyson - GDyson@gmail.com -and it is very easy to work with, and one can remove almost any wrinkle with the (careful!) application of heat.

Jeff, yes, I did the transom exactly as per RUTH - which has worked very well, so far.
One of my next boats will likely be a 14' Whitehall for oar and sail - in SOF, of course! I have a couple of other sailing designs on the board, too - I was an avid racer for many years, and sailing is still very dear to my heart.
This dinghy could be adapted to sailing, but it was never designed for that. It will actually be used by a lady to row her grandson around on a pond.
Two other people have written to me to say that they built Mippets in the past (in the 1980's!), though out of plywood as per the original design. They both praise her rough water ability, as did Bolger himself.