> When I was a boy I spent a great deal of time with a neighbor,
> Max Wheildon. . . .
> He was very into canvas and wood kayaks. He had several that
> he had covered with (at that time) new and innovative materials like
> plywood and fiberglass. He designed this boats, supposedly with input
> from L. Francis Herreshof. They were very similar, though constructed
> quite differetly, to the Norman Skene "Walrus" that I am
> building now. I built three of these in my college days, but alas,
> the plans have disapeared over the years. ...
> Max lived in Framingham, MA and Sawyer Island, Boothbay, ME (My
> old stomping ground). Does anyone know of Max and his kayaks? Does
> anyone have the plans.

> I would appreciate any information.

Can't help you with Max's plans, but you can buy George Putz's book on building canvas covered kayaks from Amazon.com. His boats are also built from Skene's design. Toward's the end of the book, Putz has reproduced a facsimile of Skene's original drawings and story from a magaize called ''The Rudder''. i can't remember the year it was originally published but it was somewhere near 1920, so I'd guess this was probably the article that started your friend Max.

If you have old eyes the facsimile is a bit hard to read, particulary some of the numbers on the drawings. You should be able to get these measurements from the front of Putz`s book though. Hope this helps. Paul Jacobson