> I know that most of the talk here is of sea kayaks, but I have a question
> about whitewater kayaks. Is it a good idea to strip-build a whitewater
> kayak? I know that they're strong, but are they that strong? Forgive my
> ignorance--it's hard for me to believe that they can take the kind of
> abuse required. But if so, does anyone have any resources for plans, etc?
> And also, what about plans for whitewater canoes? I know it's a bunch of
> questions, but I appreciate any help you can offer.

Personally, I would have no qualms about building a whitewater kayak, but I think it is realistic to have doubts about keeping it looking pristine. The attitude you should have is that it will get thrashed but will be straight forward to fix.

I've ignored these thoughts somewhat in surfyak, in that I'm doing some strip design - which is stupid in a boat that's going to get knocked around. But who's to complain? my eyes are open. In that regard I've designed the first 4 inches and the last 3 inches of surfyak to be sacrificial - I can replace them without affecting the rest of the strips. And may even make strip ends for looking at and rubber ones for reality.

I don't know much about glassing, but one initial idea is to use kevlar on the inside in order to approximately keep things together when you really smash up. And of course I'll look carefully at using 3 layers of 3.2oz satin on the outside (but I haven't really started investigating this).

If you're using a design with major curvatures, you'll find yourself using many narrow strips, and that bead and cove has application in only about 1/2 or less of the kayak. A lot of fitting is involved so it won't take half the time of a guillemot.

Since the only big waves around me are in rivers, it will be interesting to see what really happens - but a whitewater kayak is for whitewater.

Anyway, if you're really interested, rent a good kayak and take measurements for a day, measure up your friends yaks, search the web(lots of ideas out there). Then figure out what's best for you and draw it up. If you're anything like most of the people here, the process will be as interesting as the results and you will have fun all along the way.

-mick