> Ansers to your questions, in more or less reverse order:

> Stitch and glue better for a novice? Maybe. If you buy a precut kit then
> it will certainly be fast and simple. There are a couple of major names
> who produce S&G kits and they seem to hate each other fiercely and
> passionately -- but from what I read from the people who have built their
> boats, they are both good companies to deal with -- as long as you do not
> mention the name of their competition -- and builders of either brand of
> boat seem to love their boats.

> If you are building from plans you must cut your own panels from your own
> plywood. This is not hard, it just takes more time. With full size palns
> you paste them on and cut on the lines. with reduced plans you enlarge
> them, and then treat them as full size plans. For a beginner or a person
> who jst wants a simple boat, this is a lot of extra effort. For someone on
> a tight budget, this is a trade-off of time for money.

> Stitch and glue construction does not usually require a strongback (a long
> narrow workbench). Once the pieces are cut to shape they are rather quick
> to pull together. Tools needed are few. Few skills needed. This is a VERY
> GOOD option for a beginner, but I am not sure it si a better option than
> strip building.

> A strip kit as a first project? I think this is a fine idea. The possible
> shapes that you can make are unlimited, so are the posible designs and
> modifications to those designs. This wealth of design freedom can be
> overwhelming. Strip-built boats have more parts than stitch and glue
> designs, (all those strips !) but they are very easy to assemble. If you
> are big enough to use a staple gun you are big enough to build a canoe or
> kayak.

> The strips that you get are generally ''square'' They should be uniformly
> thick (anywhere from 1/8th inch to 1/4 inch thick is common, just make
> sure they ALL are the same thickness) and uniformly wide. The edges may be
> cut into interlocking curved shapes ( one is called a bead and it nests
> inside a cove) or they may be straight edges. The length of the strips
> maybe anywhere from 4 feet long to a few feet longer than the length of
> your finished boat.

> Many strips go on without modification. You just glue the edge, lay them
> on the forms, slide them next to existing strips, and shoot in a few
> staples to hold them in place until the glue sets. Other strips are custom
> shaped to fit certain areas. Usually these are the ends where the boat
> gets narrower, and you have to shave a little wood off of a strip. It is
> about as difficult as sharpening a pencil in a pencil sharpener. In fact,
> the boat is probably made form the same type of wood that is used in a
> pencil -- cedar. A hand plane does a good job very easily. If you think
> you have made a mistake, grab another strip. A strip you screw up on can
> probably be used in another location, so don't worry about excessive
> waste.

> Putting all the strips together can (correction, make that WILL) take
> longer than assembling a stitch and glue kit. In addition, you need to
> spend time setting up a strongback, and mounting the frames that you build
> on. That is, if you get a kit that has the frames pre-cut. Otherwise, you
> must also cut the frames. We are talking time and materials here. These
> are the ONLY reasons I advise in favor of stitch and glue kit for a first
> boat.

> Exceptions: If you have a friend who has already constructed a strip-built
> boat and you can borrow the frames they used (or rent them) then a strip
> built boat becomes competitive cost-wise with a stitch and glue boat. If
> you already have the tools available so that you can cut your own strips,
> AND you have the frames, then you might build a stripper for less money
> than a stitch and glue kit. About $40 to $50 worth of cedar or pine is
> needed for making a kayak or canoe. Maybe a little more or less depending
> on where you get the wood and the length of the boat. A stitch and glue
> design is made from plywood, usually marine plywood. A 4 x 8 foot panel of
> this is in the $30 and up range. Most kayaks use 2 to 4 sheets of plywood.
> That is about $60 to $120 for materials. Kits provide these materials
> precut, and you are paying for the kit maker to do the work of cutting
> those parts. Waste, tool costs, etc. are all borne by the kit maker, who
> passes these costs along to you. In exchange you get good parts that are
> ready to assemble.

> I have heard it sad that you build an automobile from 'parts', and you
> build a house from 'materials'. To extend this analogy, you build a kit
> from parts and a stripper from materials. A kit provides you with the more
> expensive 'parts', a stripper MIGHT be built with the less expensive
> 'materials'.

> If you have the idea of making several boats from the same design, the
> *second* time you use the forms for a stripper your construction time and
> costs will drop. If yo plan to build several boats from plywood, you can
> drastically cut (averagea) production time by stacking several sheets of
> plywood and cut parts for two or three boats at the same time.

> For a single boat, go with a kit.

> As for epoxy fumes in the house:

> Use the epoxy outside of your house and there will be no problem. This is
> a boat, not a coffee table. While some people have built them in the
> living rooms of their apartments, they still have to get the thing outside
> to float it, so they might as well paint it and epoxy it outside. For $30
> you can get a 12 by 12 dining fly (with poles) at most K-marts or sporting
> goods stores. set ti up on your driveway and work in its shade for the few
> days it will take to assemble the hull and paint or varnish it. Start on a
> Friday night, work through the weekend and you'll have a lot done by
> Sunday night. A cheap tarp will cover your work over night and keep the
> rain and dew off of things.

> Decide where you are going to store your baat when it is finished. Try to
> work in that area to build it, too. If you plan to store it in the rafters
> of the garage, move the car out and get to work. I work on my deck.

> As for designs: If you are looking to travel with this, and do some
> camping, plan of a capacity of your weight plus 100 pounds for gear,
> water, and food. If you are camping in an area where fresh water is
> abundant you can plan on 50 to 60 pounds of gear and food, instead.

> Look for a boat with a beam (width) that suits your hips. You aer shorter
> and lighter than me, so I suspect you are narrower in the hips than me,
> too. For any given length, a narrower boat will go faster and paddle
> easier than a wide boat. My shoulders are probably also wider than yours,
> so I would have less difficulty paddling a wide boat, while you would be
> straining to get the paddle past the sides of the boat on each stroke --
> or you would need a longer, heavier, paddle.

> Get the narrowest width you can fit into and then get the proper length to
> give you sufficient displacement for your weight and the weight of your
> gear. With stitch and glue designs you have to look in a lot of catalogs
> at the specs, or check them online. With strippers you could modify an
> existing design rather easily. (stretch or compress the distance between
> frames to change length, delete or add frames to the middle to modify the
> beam, etc.)

> Fabric covered boats are probably as fast to build as stitch and glue
> kits, and much cheaper. George Putz's book on building canvas covered
> boats has plans for a 17 foot boat ( which you could easily modify to
> shorten or narrow -- and I would suggest narrowing). Putz estimated that
> one of these boats could be built for under $200 when he wrote the book.
> With careful shopping that is still possible,(I think I could skrimp a bit
> and get it down to $160 even today) but I think most people would pay
> about $250 for all the materials needed. Think of that range, and compare
> it with the costs of a kit.

> Putz's design calls for 7 full-length strips of wood, each of them about
> 3-4 times the thickness of a strip used for building a stripper. These can
> be easily cut on a table saw, or you can have a commercial lumberyard rip
> them for you for a small fee. (at a dollar a cut that would be $7 plus the
> cost of the original stock. If you use lumber that is shorter than
> full-length -- a likely case -- then you'll pay $14 for their service fee,
> and be a day ahead in your building.)

> These strips are held in building forms cut from plywood panels. You'll
> need two sheets of common plywood and a jigsaw or sabre saw to cut them
> out. Once they are in place you fit in pieces for ribs and reinforcement.
> You can cut these parts with a hand held coping saw, or use that sabre
> saw. Teh reinforcements and ribs and floorbraces, and all the other little
> parts, are held in with a few drops of epoxy cement and some bronze
> screws.

> You spend a few more hours building the frame for this type of
> skin-on-frame construction, than it takes to assemble the hull and deck
> with a stitch and glue kit, but once the frame is done it takes only an
> hour or two to cover it with fabric. There is not a lot of sanding to
> speak of. Overall the time to build this is about the same as a stitch and
> glue. If you have even the slightest interest in this type of building I
> strongly recommend Putz's book.

> Skin (fabric) covered boats, by the way, are reputed to be very durable,
> as they flex when they hit an obstruction. Baidarkas, another skin covered
> boat with a different frame design than Putz describes, are commonly
> covered with nylon fabric as strong as the stuff they use to make
> automotive seatbelts. This is tough stuff. George Dyson has a book on
> Baidarkas, and sells these hightech materials for the skins. I've been
> thinking of building a Putz design frame with a high-tech (synthetic
> fiber, not canvas) skin. Last time I checked the costs, the difference
> would be about $50 more with the newer skin materials.

> Again, the second boat is fster and cheaper because you would already have
> the frames. If you can find someone who has built one of these boats, go
> visit them, buy them a few beers and try their boat. It you like it,
> borrow or rent the frames from them. If you don't like it, look for some
> other design -- you are only out some car fare and a 6 pak -- and you have
> probably met a new friend.

> Take your time finding the design you like, or you'll kick yourself for
> building something that you don't like. When you have two or three
> specific designs in mind post a note here and listen to any advice from
> people who have built those particular models. You may find people nearby,
> and again, make a trip to try their boat.

> Best of luck with your building project. Keep us informed as to how it
> goes.

> Paul G. Jacobson

I'm just finishing up my Putz kayak now. I can't comment on the performance yet, but it was fun to build. It took longer than my Pygmy kit but it was more interesting to build, and I didn't have to deal with fiberglass. I bought almost all of my materials at the local hardware store for about $250. I could build a second one for $150 and the leftover materials.

Mike