Finally posting again... it has been a while! I have made some more progress in getting the "skin" installed. Instead if seal skins (I couldn't find any locally...) I am using 18oz Vinyl Coated Polyester tarp material. This fabric is REALLY tough! First, it gets rolled out over the upside down hull. It is cut to overlap the gunwales by a few inches all around, then small slits are cut every few inches around the perimeter. Starting in the middle of the boat, the skin is laced tightly around the hull.
You can see in this picture how tough this fabric is. The lacing is under a lot of tension, however the slits in the fabric do not tear; even cutting them with a razor knife was pretty hard!
One thing that can't be avoided with a skin of this type is wrinkles in the hull between the chines and the gunwales. I knew that this would happen, and I tried my best to keep them to a minimum. In the end, I decided to cut a couple of "darts" into the hull sides. There are two per side, and they reduce the amount of wrinkles in the hull.
My first attempt at closing the bow was a mess, lots of wrinkles and loose fabric. I cut off the first few inches of fabric and made a new bow section. The second attempt was much better. Last night, I finally finished the last dart and got the stern closed up. I flipped the boat over and will do the deck skin next.
looks great......imagine doing that with many pieces of seal skin around a driftwood frame?
ReplyDeleteWow, you certainly make nice looking boats. Where did you find the skin material?
ReplyDeleteThanks! The skin came from mytarp.com (full link is in the post)
ReplyDeleteI realize that is has been a few years since you completed this project. Do you think that air sponsons like Feathercraft uses between the chines and gunwales would help with the loose fitting skin?
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