Actually two new skins, as I took apart the original skin and put a heavier weight canvas bottom on it, and this time I glued the bottom skins of both boats to the closed-cell-foam with contact cement.
The experiment of not doing that had resulted in several gallons of water slowly leaking into the space between the bottom skin and the foam layer (after I had managed to scrape some small holes in the canvas). The water would leak out just as slowly when I hung up the skin to dry, which was quite a nuisance. The new skins had none of that problem this trip.
Click on photos to enlarge..
These first five shots are of grandson RJ in the yellow boat taken by Jim from the red boat. The water was a bit choppy when we set out, which RJ found exciting.
The next three shots are of Jim in the red boat taken by RJ from the yellow boat. The hump in the skin behind Jim is the top stringer, popped off the top of the end frame because the redesigned frame-lock didn't hold it down. (This has since been corrected)
These two show RJ from the dock. This dock is about a mile across the lake from the dock we launched from. Note the red half- deck. I'm trying out a new skirt design where the front half stays on the boat and only the stern half comes away with a capsized boater. More on that later after I finish the skirt. For this trip I used both halves as front decks (no one capsized).
Four more shots by Jim from the red boat. In the first you get a close-up of the half-deck. The second is a shot of the bridge over the "famous" river D, where Devil's Lake empties into the Pacific. The D is billed as the world's shortest river.
Back at the launch area, Jim trying out the two boats rigged side-by-side (a preliminary to hopefully adding a sailing rig).