> I am going to build a West Greenland syle of skinboat kayak with my 10
> year old daughter for her use. I have chosen a Greenland design because it
> is more maneuvarable than a Baidarka, but still light, fast and straight
> tracking. Anything other than skin is out of the question. I have looked
> at reviews of the West Greenlander according to Chris Cunningham's
> instructions featured in past issues of Sea Kayaker. (The review was on
> the Southern California Boat Builder web site.) I would like some
> suggestions on how to make that boat more stable. Does anyone have
> suggestions on how to achieve this?

Well, other than considering the fact that a 10-year old is a lot shorter than most of us are, a normal-width Greenland kayak (19-21") will be a lot more stable for her, because her center of gravity is much lower. Some stability comes with length (as does some of the tracking) Maybe make it 14' or so long--long enough that she can go relatively fast, short enough that she doesn't have too much wetted surface to contend with.

I know with a skin boat, it would be relatively easy to make the chines wider, which would make the hull flatter--this would increase primary stability, but drop her secondary stability. You could also increase the beam (which would give you decent sec. stab., but make it hard for her to roll (don't think she might not want to try that someday!)

I don't have kids, but I have had friends' children paddle my 17'x24" S&G. Since they're so much shorter, they had no "tippiness" fears at all, even in 1-2' waves. 17' was quite a bit of boat for a smaller child to maneuver, though. I would think that (remembering a child's lower CG) rather than trying to make a boat more stable, that keeping a boat _as_ stable would be important.

I suppose my answer would be this: base your changes in the boat's design on how good a paddler your daughter may become and on how "big" of water she will paddle.

Shawn