: I know I've seen posts in the past about making smaller versions of boats but
: I don't remember how it's done.

To make the 5/6 scale Great Auk, I simply scaled everything down by that ratio. Since I was printing the forms myself from the offsets in Nick's book, it didn't cost anything to print these smaller, and I then spaced the forms at ten inches instead of a foot. I didn't make the strongback any smaller. I did however cut the strips thinner, 5mm instead of a quarter inch. Since the boat is smaller and the paddler lighter, the bending stress is much less, so the material can be lighter.

Don't be afraid to scale down. The 5/6 Auk was built for my daughter who is currently eight and weighs 15 kg. She's still a bit too small for it, but my wife, who is 45 kg (100 lb) and five feet four, finds it to be an excellent boat and wants it ! That was the maximum design paddler weight, and was expected to be about right for my daughter for daytrips when she was an adult of about the same size as my wife is now, but with ten years' paddling experience. I expected my wife would find the boat a bit tippy, and that I (at 80 kg and five feet seven) would not be able to keep it upright at all. In fact, it is a squeeze to get me in (no shoes:) but she paddles wonderfully as long as the water isn't too hard to read. She surfs like a dream.

So if you are small, scale down a design more than you expect you should - you'll like the result ! Geyrfugl maintains 5 mph for me (over an eight mile trial paddle after a full day playing in different boats) compared with just over 4 mph for my own boat which is supposedly the right size. I wouldn't want such a small boat for expeditions or in a big sea, but she's excellent for the paddlers she was intended to fit.