: If you're making an extreme ultralight boat, like Monfort's, then
: the roving will help, otherwise it's not needed. Kevlar has
: virtually zero stretch, polyester has about 15%, won't do much
: of anything except add weight.

: Stapling is no big deal, if the staples are driven flush, after
: they are put in done with a hammer, they are really difficult to
: see.

: If you're using polyester fabric to cover the boat, even the
: pre-shrunk fabric will shrink a bit with heat and most of the
: fabric used for covering is unshrunk so will shrink considerably
: with heat. A clothes iron is lots safer than trying to use a
: heat gun and you have more control. Pretty easy to cover most
: boat shapes with heat shrunk fabric.

: Bill H.

Yeah, the more ribs I put on, the less I think I need/want/care about the roving

@Dave - the PL premium along the stem sounds like a nice plan, I'll probably do that. I'll be stapling the skin all the way around with monel staples (gunwales too) and just heat-shrinking it after, so I'd kind of rather not bother sewing anything. I considered lashing in the skin umiak-style, but I'd like to keep the nice boaty-looking gunwale-inwales I'm planning on exposed. Plus I think it's probably less hassle to just staple it on and shrink it.

Has anyone ever sealed the inside of the fabric as well as the outside? Since this isn't a decked boat, the inside is going to be a lot more exposed to water and UV, and I doubt the polyurethane is going to soak too far into the 14oz polyester I'm using (maybe I'll thin out the first coat?). Maybe put just one (possibly thinner) coat inside, then flip the boat when that coat gets a little tacky (i.e. not drippy) and do the outside of the boat as normal?