Fabric skin over frame construction

Canoes and kayaks have for years been made of flexible hull fabrics stretched over a frame. Has this construction ever been applied to larger boats, in particular sailboats? There are some very strong industrial fabrics for architectural applications (e.g., the Denver airport roof). Could these be used for ultralight hull construction?

 

Aerolite has plans for daysailors, although their sailboats are no longer than 13 ft. Platt Montfort is perhaps the leading proponent for this type of construction.

If you're asking about larger sailboats, like cruisers, you find some instances of a hybrid approach, like an internal space frame and comparatively lightweight shell, as opposed to a full monocoque construction.

But for a full frame-and-fabric type of construction, I think you'd run into issues of being able to withstand local damage. When you couple that with the fact that cruising monohulls can sink...

 

skin on frame

Corey Freeman built a skin on frame boat of about 28'. it was called an Umiak I think but it was not a sailboat. That was about 5 years ago or more. I think he still has a shop in Anacortes, WA

 

This is a picture of an Irish Currach boat,
it was posted on the $100 boat thread
http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12176&page=4&highlight=$100



The currach's are a wooden frame with canvas stretched over, and then painted in tar. Been around for thousands of years.
There is lots of info on web if you search,
apparantly there have been quite a few oceangoing ones.
Hans.

 

Does anyone have more information as to who the frame itself is made? I can't seem to find anything and the pictures on the referenced links appear to be steam bent? I'd love to build a much larger tar ship for use, but I'm a little foggy on the process. Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks!