: Perhaps, if you enjoy heavy watercraft.
: Anybody who had the experience of working at a summer camp with
: canvas-covered canoes will confirm that they were a lot heavier
: at the end of the season.
: Probably a combination of water ingress from inside and outside the
: hull was responsible.
: Lovely quiet craft to paddle, but not so much fun on the
: portages.....
: It was the promise of less maintenance and lighter weight that led
: to the ruination of many wood/canvas canoes when somebody had
: the 'bright idea' of sheathing the outside with fiberglass and
: polyester resin. Years later, after the sheathing has peeled
: off, some of those canoes are being recovered in canvas.

: Of course, some will argue that the SOF 'renaissance' is exactly
: that old idea in a different guise (and different fabric and
: paint, often).

: Cheers
: John

What was the problem with the summer camp canoes, paint insufficiently water-proof, canvas too thick or too absorbent, or boats left in the water after use? There are modern materials that can be substituted for canvas and also better paints.

Seadragon's boat needs additional cross-grain strength, but does it have to be glass and epoxy? I don't have actual experience of encapsulating boats so I didn't identify alternatives to canvas and paint.

My own canoe is finished with ordinary latex house paint (but no fabric), it does not get saturated by a few hours spent in the water and if any water does gets in, it dries out when it is stored inside; it still looks pretty good so paint is an adequate finish for some boats, but I don't do rock gardening in it. For information, another boat that was finished the same way and stored outside (Canada) 24/7 for 3 years as a test of the finish now looks a bit stressed, so I don't recommend that for boats that get left outside or left in the water for long periods.

I assume seadragon's boat will be dry-docked. Would dynel work? It has good abrasion resistance and takes paint well but I am not sure about strength; it may also be too stretchy. Xynole (polyester) might be stiffer. If there is no information available then perhaps a test panel could be made and tested to destruction to see if the wood under the cloth fails before the cloth due to its stretchiness.