: There's traditional, and there's pragmatic. Fuselage construction
: isn't very traditional, either. Inuit builders were pragmatic-
: as soon as nails were available, they replaced lashings on the
: stringers, as soon as mast hoops were available they pretty much
: stopped building coaming rings in favor of mast rings, and H. C.
: Petersen says to use barrel strakes for ribs. Bronze and monel
: screws are pretty standard in wooden boat construction nowadays,
: so maybe it's simply a pragmatic choice.

: BUT- unrealtrip- I hope those are bronze or monel screws and not
: yellow wood screws... Also- screws don't hold well screwed into
: the edge of plywood. If it were me I'd lash it too, and wouldn't
: depend solely on screws driven into the edge of a piece of
: plywood.

: Just being pragmatic-

: m

Good info, I suspect they are just plain old yellow wood screws, I just bought a box from the local Lowe's since I was first planning on pulling them out and using pegs. Even with screws though, I was going to epoxy, so it really is just a screw vs peg issue, I'm leaning towards proper water safe screws and epoxy. Pulling all those screws out only to drill and replace with pegs seems like a tremedous hassle if there is no real strength benefit. I'm planning on doing the tightly sewn skin also, so I figure the combination of everything will help hold it together.