What type of material can you use to make a kayak outer skin?

Question

I am building a kayak and need to know the best material to use for the outer skin.

Answer 1

Whitewater, racing, or sea kayak?

Racing you want to use a kevlar shell. Very light and fast but brittle if you hit rocks..

For whitewater you want the most abrasion resistant stuff you can find. Rotomolded plastic is what a lot of companies use but you can't do it by yourself.

Sea kayak - lots of options.
Lots of older kayaks were canvas with a wterproof coating like airplane dope.
Now you use hypalon.
What about thin wood stringers? They look so good when you use the WEST system.
If you can fiberglass then that's an option. Just make sure the hull is thin enough to be light but thick enough to be strong. Make sure you fair the hull. Over and over again. Very very smooth before you add the top(bottom) coat. The fair it again.

Answer 2

Most commercially built skin and frame kayaks (like my Feathercraft) use Hypalon rubberized nylon fabric for the bottom and coated heavy nylon for the upper deck. Here is a link to a catalog of a company that sells both (I'm not sure what their minimum order is.) it can be cut and glued or heatsealed like neoprene but is tough and very watertight.

http://www.mauritzononline.com/pdf.html