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Heavy on bottom, light on top?


Traveler

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About to start skinning a 16 foot fuselage frame, touring style kayak, primarily for light duty overnight tripping. Trying a few things to keep the weight down while ensuring respectable durability, and was thinking that I might shave a couple of pounds off by using a heavier fabric only on the bottom up to the gunnel (e.g. 9 ounce poly or 12 ounce nylon), and a light fabric (3 ounce Dacron) for the  deck, where presumably there wouldn't be much stress/abrasion risk. Would staple both top and bottom halves along the gunnel and cover with a lightweight rub strip. Anyone done this? Any reason why it would be a bad idea from a structural (or other)  point of view? Thanks all

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I am all all about saving weight, while you will never know the difference paddling you will feel the difference handling the boat on land.

 

But, while you could do what you are thinking I see no advantage and a lot of extra work and possible leaks. All your going to save is the weight difference of the deck and I would be surprised if you saved one pound by doing that. 

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I did something similar for one of the kid's yaks for aesthetic purposes - it can work.  However, I believe the weight "saved" with the lighter fabric gets totally negated with the added weight of the rub strips, staples, screws, and silicone required for a leak proof installation.  I'd just sew the 9 oz up the top with the running whip stitch for the lightest weight if I were you & felt the need for the more robust fabric.  

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Traveler:

Jeff and Abyssdncr got it right. Also, think about the benefit of a lighter boat, which is real. Light boats get used more because there is less work involved. However, once a boat is light enough to get on and off your roof rack and into and out of the water easily (which varies, depending on your strength and agility), any further reduction in weight is insignificant.

Have fun!

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Thanks all for this good advice. This is my first SOF, but I have built a stripper canoe where I quickly realized that there is no single thing that will get you light weight - gotta look for ounces wherever you can find them to save pounds overall. Hence my question.  But I like andy000's point that once you reach a manageable weight there is no real reason to keep looking for more reductions. With my frame now at about 21-22 pounds excluding coaming, I think I can keep the whole thing to under 35 pounds after skinning, which will be fine by me.  Thanks again 

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