good day gentle people: This is a weird one so I wall give some history. Four years age I started building a Newfound Spirit, ready to buy the strips and so on. Then my brain swelled up and tried to kill me, almost did, coma for a week and such. Now I am disabled and can not do the things I am trained to do, so no money for the strips, and 40lbs is a bit much for me these days. So the spirit is on indefinite hold, Lots of people are willing to lend me one but i do not care to wear out my welcome so something of my own that came from my hands is wanted.
Skin on frame seems to be the best bet for economy and weight. I am not opposed to buying plans, profit is not a dirty word, but as I say things are tight and I have already bought the Spirit plans. So i ask is this something that may turn out a good boat or am I just proving my brain injury?
Feel free to ignore me, is you need to castigate me please be creative and give us,the forum a good laugh
Thanks much and all the best to you
You can definitely make a…
You can definitely make a great boat using skin-on-frame construction. For instructions, there's lots of information online and there are several books on the subject. There are a couple of different construction methods:
- Traditional construction using gunwale board, deck beams, ribs, and stringers. These are typically all-wood construction
- "Fuselage" construction using frames and stringers. These can be built using wood and plywood, or HDPE for the frames and aluminum tubing for the longitudinal members.
Either method can produce a fine boat. Using all-wood/plywood construction, you can probably build one for ~$200 or so, including the skin and finishing supplies.
Fusalage Frame Kayaks
Jeff Horton at Kutzucraft.com has some nice designs of Fuselage Frame kayaks as does Dave Gentry.
Also, take a look at Yostwerks.net, if you are willing to drawn plans from a set of offsets ( X Y coordinates)
John VB
thank very much for the…
thank very much for the encouragement and the web page suggestion. Settled on a Nukumi. went to see my father for his 89th birthday, he offered the ash needed. Helps so much to have father with a saw mill and 12 wooded acres , lots of newly dead ash trees ( those darned EAB). He also offered walnut and cheery after seeing the pictures skinned in clear vinyl. tempting for a reformed cabinetmaker, but not for the first try. Again thanks for the replies.