Hey Pat,

Nice to see your Petrel on the water. I know what you went through building it.

: I really can't take credit for a few things on the boat, these are the seat
: and backband, recessed bungee fittings and paddle park. All of this work
: was done by Dan Caouette of Clear Stram Woodworking in NH. It was an
: absolute pleasure dealing with Dan, and his work really speaks for itself,
: without his pieces the kayak wouldn't not be as interesting as it is.

Gosh, shucks... It was a fun diversion and a got a sweet sprayer system out of the deal. Pat supplied the AYC and padauk and I luckily had some WRC that was close in color. The deck fittings were turned on a lathe. The paddle park was laminated from AYC and padauk and carved to shape. The seat was the first carved, wood kayak seat I have ever built. I had planned on making one anyway. What timing... I designed the surface of the seat using DELFTship (the only surfacing program I was comfortable with), then imported it into my CAD where I cut the 1" thick slices. It was built like Nick's with a bunch of vertical slices. I actually built two seats. The first one came out WAY to small, even for my skinny butt. The second one I built with flat, horizontal slabs. Less pieces to glue together. I thought it came out pretty good. Matched his kayak beautifully...

Dan