This is sounding a lot like my first kayak, built in 1990 from 1963 Mechanix Illustrated encyclopedia plans. They called it the Canvasback. I did use airplane dope. I constantly feared (maybe too much) tearing the canvas. I feel a lot better about the 12 oz. nylon I used recently, though I may step down to 9 oz. But, I haven't been around any other SOF builders to really SEE what else is working.

Yeah, that's 12 feet long, and definitely too small for me!

: I'm doing this with my Boy Scout Troop, so I'm looking for the
: easiest way to do this with the kids. The plan was for the
: Scoutmaster, that's me, to make all the mistakes on his kayak,
: which I have! The plans we are using are from the 1950's and
: call for "Airplane Dope". We don't want to use the
: Dope so what is your suggestion for a skin for the kids to use?
: If we use nylon, will it hold up as well as with the kids using
: it? And how would we seal the nylon? I'm planning on making one
: more kayak, but with this one I'm going to use 10mil clear
: plastic so I can show off how it's made when I talk to kids
: about joining Boy Scouts. I'll post some pictures soon.