I used my nailer to drive 18 ga. nails for the keel strip and the strips at the water line and sheer. I nailed through a piece of scrap so that I could get the nail out with as little damage as possible when it came time. Even if you set it so that it doesn't countersink, It's still tough to pull straight out, and if you have to rock it to lever it out with a pair of nippers you'll elongate the hole and dent the adjacent wood. If you could set a 23-ga pinner so that it left enough of the shank above the hull to pull it I would think it'd be fine, but you'd loose a lot of holding power by going with a headless pin nail, especially if you didn't countersink it. They make some super light-gauge narrow crown staplers,but again they're not made so that the staples come out easily. If you step down to consumer-grade tools there are electric staples that use the same staples as the good ol' Stanley 45. (Stanley makes one, actually) I think it would take less time to go stapleless than it would to use a nailer.

m