I have a friend that has a condo in Hawaii and he's wanted to figure out a way to keep a kayak that he can lock up when he's not there. It just occurred to me that a yostwerks style frame but made with tent poles, rather than larger diameter tubing, might be a great way to do that and still have a very light/portable boat he could get out to Hawaii.

Tent poles should be plenty strong enough but I'd be more worried about them flexing a little too much. Anyone, especially you, Tom, have any idea whether or not this is reasonable? I like the idea of a few chines that are shock corded together like tent poles, rather than individual pieces. You could get 8.5 or 9.5 mm poles in fiberglass or aluminum fairly easily. Hell, you might even be able to source them by buying old tents on the cheap.

I did find a website that looks like it may be a decent source for parts if this works out. Anyone have any opinions?
http://www.questoutfitters.com/tent_poles.htm

FrankP

PS: I have no affiliation with questoutfitters.com, just found their site and thought it looked fairly helpful for getting the right kinds of pieces.