> I'm going (as son as I have finished my exams this semester) to build a
> Great Auk. I have bought "The strip-built sea kayak" by Nick
> Schade. And since I'm a poor student I have decided to not buy the
> complete plans. My question is if anything catastrophic happens if I make
> the deck a little more "flat"? I was thinking of making the deck
> horizontal at the middle. At the bow it will be almost as before, but in
> front of the cockpit it will consist of three "sections"
> (instead of two as it is orginaly). Anyone understand what I mean? :-) The
> intention is to get a deck that isn't quite so sharppointed. Another
> important question is if the guy who designed the kayak (Nick Schade)
> would mind if I do so...?

> Einar F Veland

Hi, I recently finished a Great Auk with a few modifications. The front deck can easily be lowered by rounding the line on the top of the forms. If you make three sections it will be nessasary to modify the forms by picking a start point (around frame 3 or 4) and then taper the top section back to its maximum width at the cockpit. The hard part would be the front edge of the cockpit. To get a the combing lip to follow the contour of the front deck would be very hard. I dont know how that could be done without it looking off kilter (uneven gap around the front edge) Beware the flakey numbers in the offset table! Some of the forms required some tweaking. (and not just the ones I modified tho those needed many more tweaks.)

Good luck!

Bob