...but I know what I like. And some of these boats are gorgeous. Hi Chuck and co. I too have been lurking and following this board for about the past month. I now have about 25+ kayak sites bookmarked, but visit this one daily.
Anyway, it goes like this: at 14 I had a SOF that I paddled about. That was '73. In the early 80's I aquired a Chestnut Canoe Pathfinder II 14' runabout: mahogany 1/8"x6" bias ply hull, white oak frame, and cedar seats. It was classy looking enough that I pulled it apart to restore. (A fisherman friend told me to put it in the water and have fun, he was right) It was quite light and flew along pretty good. Every spring I would get into fixing it but never complete. One day my 3 year old son was jumping on it and the hull cracked along the keel. I freaked, but realized that the zinc napth I had put on had made the ply like peanut brittle. After dragging around the 40 horse
for 15 yrs (that I'd paid alot to rebuild) I sold it for half it's value. I swore off boats, (hmmm, but maybe a 12' alum. w kicker?) Then this spring I broke my foot and have been looking out the window at this island I use to paddle to as a kid. My son is now 16 and in need of exercise. I mentioned kayaking and he seemed interested, so I went and dragged out that same old (30 years old!) kayak. I've chosen to restore it, but it could be built faster from scratch (couple days). The builder was a hydrodynamic engineer but he was no carpenter. It was built quickly with handsaw, hammer, meas. tape, and maybe a plane or chisel. Real hack, but heh, it worked and lasted years. The design is quite simple and interesting. It's 14' and weighs in at 24# (frame) and 30# (w/canvas skin). It basically consists of: 1 sht 1/4" firply (or pcs.) for webs/frames and bottom of cockpit, 2-3/4"x8'dowels for keelson, 4-9/16"x14' dowels for chines, 2-5/8"x14'+ dowels for whalers, 1x2x14'+ fir for deck, and some 1x for bow/stern stems. The dowels are held to the frames w/ nylon string that after 30yrs is still doing it's job with no sign of detioration. Being fir, the woods lost resilience and is a bit brittle. The builder actually spliced short lengths of dowel together, but his splices weren't right. Throw in a few brass screws and glue, and voila! To save $ I'm even considering skinning it with a few sallyann 50/50 bedsheets. I've been a carpenter for 27yrs but kayaks are a whole nother trip: no right angles, dynamics, strength/weight, and cost considerations, etc, etc. If interested I could try to upload plans/offsets...or go w/ the Walrus...or a stripper! I think I'll save my stripping for oldage so I have something to look forward to! Good luck. M.