: Tom,

: As the other posts stated time is going to be your most important
: consideration. My first strip boat took me over a year to finish and i
: worked hard on it. It is not difficult work but it might be too much for
: your senior year in high school. The s&g's are quicker and easier to build
: ether from plans or a kit but the skills required are less. I have
: pondered building kit boats with students and have conversed with other
: teachers about it and come up with the conclusion that have students just
: assemble a boat doesn't teach them enough.

: So IMHO research the skin on frame boats. I would provide a great tie in with
: Social Studies. You could make one as authentic as you wanted. (don't kill
: any seals please:) It is challenging and you would learn a tremendous
: amount about wood, boats and other cultures. Check out harvey golden's
: kayak site. I would recommend putz's book but I would search out more
: traditional techniques.

: Tom

Hi original Tom

I would say heed Tom Preska's advice big time.

You sound like a guy with a few things on the go. You're in final year. You have studying, school, socializing, scouts, sports and life to cram in and you need an achievable project, flexibility (like can it be halted near the end?), with a rich learning experience.

Forget the stripper. Way too long. I've seen student canoe strip projects, and many are working weekends just to finish. Not an expansive experience and could affect many other pursuites.

Forget the stitch and glue. Too formulaic. Most things set. Learning not expansive. Using instructions.

Bigtime consider the traditional (NOT a Putz - at least the walrus is not traditional) possibilities mentioned by Tom(also maybe the 'alaskan recovery' - thats the one I'd do).(Lots of info for reports etc on Zimmerly's site) The project takes way less time. You'll be able to explore paddling techniques as well(and a kayak is about paddling not building) and/or making paddles too. If time screws up, you can stop the process at various points and still have a presentation to talk/write about - the frame by itself is a killer, - and when stitched up before finishing, it looks like the real thing. You'll have time to investigate the origins, techniques of the particular yak. And have an real historic appreciation of what they experienced. You can take pictures all along the way and link them to historic approaches.

Because it's so light, you can hang from the ceiling in your bedroom or dorm down the road. Put a bulb in it(away from the wood or fabric) and have the coolest lighting around. You can easily pull it up a couple of floors to the balcony of some batch pad.(I did for years-but hvy glass boat).

And the skin approach will really reflect the moves and approaches YOU made. A more directly personal craft. Because the shapes are not set quite as specifically as the strippers or stitch and glues you'll see what happens to the shape because of the way you built it or even modified it.

Now everybody's ideas or aspirations are different, but as a generality, I think Tom P's nailed it.

-mick