compound curves in plywood

"Ouch! 1/4 inch? All covered with resin this would be fairly heavy,
methinks. What does one canoe weigh? The fuselage would probably be roughly
double that, plus formers., hardware, ...."

A 16 foot cedar strip canoe, with seats and all the trimming is under 50
pounds. Remember the resin is not just slopped on. The strength is from
the cross grains of the fabric used. This is very light. Just enough resin
is used to cover the fabric.

A one person kayak ought to have about the same total material as the Bowlus
fuselage and it would be about 40 pounds. The inside of the fuselage could
use carbon fiber or other cloth material, which is stronger and lighter (it
is opaque, so you would not want to use that on the outside). You could
probably use Kevlar on the inside, if you thought someone might be shooting
at your Bowlus. Attachment points would add weight, but the total weight
would still be reasonable.

My cedar strip canoe gets abused regularly. I have dragged it 1/4 mile over
a gravel bar. Once, when removing it from the top of my vehicle, a gust of
wind caught it and ripped it out of my helper's hands. The canoe came
crashing down on my vehicle, leaving a large dent in the vehicle, then
crashed to the asphalt. I inspected it and found no problems. We then
launched it and went 85 miles on a week long canoe trip. I do not abuse my
aircraft like I do my canoe.

Refinishing is easy. I once bet my neighbor I could refinish my 16 foot
canoe in less than 10 minutes. I sanded for 3 minutes, whisked off with an
old t shirt, then put an old white sock over a rubber glove and dipped it in
spar varnish, covering the entire canoe in about 4 minutes. I made the 10
minutes easily and, while not perfect, it looked good from 10 feet - and
ready to get abused again. And, I got a beer from my neighbor.

Colin