Composite skins get their strength from a combination of the skin and
the core. The distance between the skins provides some of the strength.
Laying up in kevlar only will give you plenty of impact resistance but
I'm not sure you'll get enough stiffness. A very good explaination is at
http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Sandcore.htm.

I've often also wondered if what you described could work though.

For your offsets, why bother with that small of a change? You're talking
about 3/16" difference. But I can understand if you want to be precise.
Especially if you're looking to sell these later on. You could assemble
a small piece of skin with lamination you propose and simply measure it.

--
Matt Langenfeld
JEM Watercraft
http://jem.e-boat.net/

sebastian wrote:
thanks to the folks who provided feedback on my lofting question.

Im going to build the ranger {15'} instead of the prospector (16')
canoe, and im going to construct it with a kevlar-carbon layup instead
of wood strip. Can anyone suggest the best way for me to adjust the
size of the stations to accomodate the thin, uniform thickness of the
composite layup compared to the wood. I'm going to use 3 layers of
5oz kevlar and one or two layers of unidirectional carbon so im
guessing it will be about 1/8"-3/16" thick max. how thick is the wood
stripping and is it relatively uniform in thickness ie can i just add
1/2" to all my patterns and have a decent work around?

also i would like to not use foam core in my layup for simplicity and
minimizing weight...but will the canoe sink like a rock if its swamped
if its just kevlar/carbon/epoxy? I am wondering if i should use a
1/8" atc core cell between layers of kevlar...for buoyancy and
stiffness.