"Gary Wright" ) writes:

Has anybody actually tried this?

yes. don't know how many but I heard last year about one shop locally
that's doing it. I have no info on how durable it is.

Monfort's frames are flexible. The skin has to work with the boat. The
skin does not have continuous backup so is subject to puncture. I don't
know how well it holds up to abraision on his boats. I imagine any
abraision would be concentrated where the skin covers the stringers? On a
cedar planked canoe the abraisive action would be spread out over the
surface. Dacron on a cedar planked, oak ribbed canoe would just be there
to keep out the water - resist moisture and resist abraision. I'd assume
it would perform better than on the open framed boats. But hey, ideally a
boat never touches anything but water.


I'm curious to learn what you mean by:
covering with glass fibre and resin adds weight faster than strength

There are many kinds of 'strength' - impact resistance, tensile strength,
puncture resistance, etc.

in this case, the original subject of the thread, it was structural, ie.
glassing over the hull (exterior only) instead of replacing cracked and
broken wood. fibreglassing a heavy "plank and rib" canoe for structural
strength is going to make quite a heavy boat. I haven't done the actual
calculations. However if enough epoxy is put on to provide the structural
strength then the cedar won't soak up water so there will be some weight
savings there over the season. canvas won't provide the structural
strength (rigidity) which is what the poster was looking for. the damaged
wood would be replaced first before covering with canvas or dacron.

I too would like to hear more from people who have used dacron.



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