: Thanks for all the great comments, guys. Very instructive!

: Bryan, what are the implications of running those numbers for improving the
: design?

: My friend Richard says he’s 5 ft 10 in and 190 pounds. He intended to use
: this kayak primarily for flat water paddling in Puget Sound without a
: sprayskirt. So speed and comfort are priorities. Good rough water handling
: is desirable but rolling is not at all important. The idea was not to
: build a replica, but something inspired by the traditional kayaks, Type 4
: in Harvery’s book.

: My initial thought was that trying to build a skin−on−frame kayak
: from a CAD drawing might be difficult because the wood won’t necessarily
: bend the way you want it to, and the sheer is largely determined by the
: angle of the gunwales, although I guess by gluing extra wood to the ends
: you can shape the sheer any way you want.

: I agree it looks like it would have problems with weathercocking. Richard
: says that the cockpit placement is based on averages from Harvey’s book.
: But then I’ve heard that Greenland kayaks were designed to weathercock on
: for hunting reasons, or is that not true?

: So it’s back to the drawing board. Richard says he plans to add more
: deadrise. I suggested adding more rocker. He has totally scrapped the
: D−shaped coaming idea. I think the idea there was to make it easy to
: build.

: Andrew

I'd highly suggest your friend go try someone else's greenland kayak before deciding on paddling it on those waters sans skirt. These things sit really low in the water, you really need a skirt to keep the water out.

Paddling in open water without a skirt isn't a really wonderful idea.

Bill H.