A little while ago I asked if anyone knew how to do Morris's Spline style skin attach. The was caused by the pitiful stiching on my first SOF. The spring/ summer issue or 2008 Masik carried his article.
Since I got no responses that anyone knew how to do it, I thought I would show the results.

The picture here just shows the boat. Next post will show the seam around the nose.

The Morris method cuts a 1/8" groove in the top of the gunwale and stem (fwd and aft). The upper deck is first installed. The skin is pushed into the grove, the glue is put in the groove (thick CA glue -Hot stuff in my case), and a "spline" is forced down into the groove, locking the skin in place. My splines were slightly narrower than the open gap, made of poplar, with a 5 degree angle on both sides. 30 seconds later that section of skin is permanately attached. I used 6" long splines stating from the center of one side, working to the ends. Since you can easily apply the glue and insert the spline to full depth without rushing, this makes a very controlled installation.

The excess is cut from the first groove. Then the opposite side is installed in the same manner.

Repeat the process with the bottom skin. At this point you have two layers of skin/ spline in each groove with a shallow open gap still showing.

A cover strip is built to close out the gap. This is primarily decorative. My cover strip was rounded on the top (3/8" radius for a 1/4" wide cap strip). Then the base of the strip was cut to fit the width of the open gap - less than the 1/8" gap in the wood, due to the cloth down the sides. The result is a mushroom shaped strip. When you glue in place (with the same CA glue) the cover strip, only the mushroom cap shows. This makes a very neat installation again easily glued down without any drama. Applying the CA to a limited length allows you to hold the cap in place with your fingers, avoiding the use of clamps, etc.

Shrink the skin, coat. Ready to go.

Once I did my test samples and decided on each step, I had a very simple and pleasant method to install a skin with no stitching.

Thanks you Mr. Morris.

Marc