I agree with everything said so far. If you really want something better than paint, a thin veneer of softwood vacuum bagged on with epoxy resin glue is the only safe engineering way to go. Putting enough wood on so that it contributes to the structural loading really is asking for trouble even if the glue line is adequately strong. By allowing the two components to creep between hard spots(deck, winches, gooseneck, hounds, halyard attachments etc) will cause failure.