How tight?

[paxtonm]

Greetings,

Time's been in short supply lately, with weekends devoted to work and (less important) chores. Finally started shrinking the 8 oz. poly skin on the Vardo tonight, and naturally picked the hottest day of the year so far. I'm about done for the night -- too hot -- but I'd like to finish tomorrow.

How tight should the skin be upon completion? Drum tight? Any deformity under pressure at all? I couldn't find anything about that in the manual, but my guess is pretty darn tight is right.

[Hirilonde]

I skinned with polyester and it does not get anywhere near drum tight. I would think any material that tight would deform the stringers between frames and then the boat would be scalloped. I would describe the skin on my boats as taught, but can be depressed a little by hand.

[P Doug (WA)]

Agreed. I don't think poly would shrink to drum tight. Seemed to me when I ironed mine, it shrunk up so far and that was it. Didn't matter if I ironed more. Maybe I was just too cautious about melting it.

[Kudzu]

..... Seemed to me when I ironed mine, it shrunk up so far and that was it. Didn't matter if I ironed more. ......

BINGO! :-)

[Hirilonde]

I don't know if this helps paxtonm, but my first impression after ironing was that it should be tighter. But I think that was just my uninformed prejudice or expectations kicking in. I got over it soon after.

[paxtonm]

Thanks everyone. That helps. It looks good. I should be able to get the rest of the small wrinkles out tonight. Thinking about it after I posted the original, I got to thinking about skin boats, and how, going from wet to dry constantly, they likely weren't drum tight, either.