I just wanted to thank everyone again for their ongoing input on my boat projects. After three S&G boats, I'm trying my hand at a SOF. As I've worked with Morris' Greenland kayak design, various things have come up that have confused me or given me problems. Each time I've worked through them with great satisfaction.

The biggest letdown came when I was finished forming the gunwhale in the single, joined fashion Mr. Morris recommends, and I went to rip it on my table saw. The blade was not super-sharp, and even with careful pressure against the fence, the blade flexed and caused an 1/8" variation EITHER WAY for a total of 1/4". I scrapped that piece and started over with two 3/4" gunwhales that I clamped together while shaping and mortising. Since then, things have gone much smoother. I also decided to salvage the badly split gunwhales for a future project by running them through a joiner to take off 1/16" (just enough to smooth out most of the errors). I'll put the thin side on the inside, since the ribs will be pushing outward under pressure.

Again, thanks, and enjoy the pictures (which are a little big but worth the download time if you're not on a 14.4K modem ;-)