I turned over my wherry last week and the paint is scraped in the front and back couple of feet, on the bow and skeg. I think that this happens when I push the boat off and on the beach sand. More glass there will take longer to wear down to the wood.

• Yes, absorbing some of the abrasion is definitely part of the concern. The glass strip down the center of the CY is a foot wide. Other than "added weight" why would you not lay down an additional strip of two of fiberglass?

If your question is why is the bottom of the boat reinforced with fibreglass but not the top, the answer is that the bottom undergoes more abrasion, both inside and out. Sure, you could put fibreglass everywhere, but that would add a lot of weight.

   I do see that more glass gets applied on the interior of the bow and stern up several planks later in the process, which will provide more rigidity, not resistance to abrasion.

My friend's question did have two things that it was aimed at:

1. abrasion resistance and the fact that the CY is fairly flat-bottomed (at least two planks are likely to make contact when pulled up on a sand/pebble beach.
2. support - will running some extra strips of glass down the center of the hull provide any extra rigidity to the hull (and would that be a good thing?)

Thanks,

Dave