Skinning the Frame

It was a perfect day to skin the frame but I opted to attend the Wooded Boat Show at Mystic Seaport instead.

Got the chance to discuss some alternative skinning ideas with Hilary Russell at the Berkshire Boatbuilding tent. He had a similar project underway.

In addition to viewing all of the attractions at the show, my wife and I toured the massive, warehoused small boat collection at the harbor. Wow, I could have spent weeks in there.

…And got to meet one of the primary assemblers and documentors of the collection, Maynard Bray.

OK, finally getting started. I purchased the nylon (Original 840 Denier Junior Ballistic) and 2-part urethane from Corey at Skin Boat School. That combo provided a tough, tight skin on my Sea Tour so I'm using it again for this project.

The stiching needle.

A stitched "sock" around the front stem piece gets things started.

After the skin is streched tight along the bottom and hooked around both end pieces, the frame is flipped right-side-up.

Here's the main running stitch down the center of the deck.

Pulling the skin tight between each stitch is rough on the hands. This time I'm prepared with a rubber glove.

Rear deck complete.

Front completed.

I used this soldering gun to trim off the excess nylon. The heat's required to seal the fraying edges.

Trimming completed.

Here's the first half of the stem stich.

Rear deck finished. I used Corey's older technique (no welting cord) because I like the look of the stiching along the deck.

Completed the fore deck in the evening.

Tomorrow morning I'll deal with the cockpit area.

The loose coaming is strapped into position and in the center, the bulk of the extra fabric has been removed.

It now becomes a matter of working around the coaming, pulling the skin tight to remove some of those deck wrinkles, securing everything temporarily with nails through the sewing holes and getting a nice, even fold around the top.

Half the stitching completed.

Full stitch completed.

A look at the cockpit. I temporarily slid on a piece of pipe insulation thinking it may work for padding.

All skinned, ready for waterproofing!