Dave,

Neither fiberglass nor fabrics like Dynel® add significant strength and
the checking problem with BCX pine plywood is insignificant. Tape your
joints inside and out and paint with 100% acrylic latex exterior paint
of your preferred gloss. For more on this and other heresies see:
http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/davecarnell/

Dave Carnell

Dave Allyn wrote:

I am building a S&G canoe. I am going to use fiberglass cloth on the
entire outside for extra strength, and to prevent any checking in the
plywood. I'm useing 1/4" BCx plywood.

What weight of cloth would I want to use for this aplication? And the
next question, how would I decide that on future projects? Is there a
general rule of thumb for weight?

One last question, I know I need to tape the inside and outside with
fiberglass tape on the seams, but If I cover the whole outside with
cloth, do I still need the tape on the outside of the seams?

Thanks,

dave


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Dave Carnell ) writes:
Dave,


the checking problem with BCX pine plywood is insignificant. Tape your

Oh, I thought he meant BC fir plywood.

Nice to hear from you.



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Dave Carnell wrote:
Dave,

Neither fiberglass nor fabrics like Dynel® add significant strength and
the checking problem with BCX pine plywood is insignificant. Tape your
joints inside and out and paint with 100% acrylic latex exterior paint
of your preferred gloss. For more on this and other heresies see:
http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/davecarnell/

Who are you kidding? Perhaps that's true of larger boats with thick wood
skins, but fiberglass adds substantial strength when you're dealing with
light weight, thin skinned boats like canoes and kayaks. This is
especially true with sandwich construction where the core of plywood or
cedar strips is fully encapsulated in fiberglass.