> In what sort of conditions do you plan to paddle her? Can a canvas or
> nylon covered boat take rough beach landings? What does your finished boat
> weigh? I'll be interested to hear how she paddles. Linda

I plan on paddling in Puget Sound in a variety of conditions. I made the cockpit the same basic size and shape as my Pygmy, so I can put a spray skirt on it. The boat has an external hardwood keel to take some of the abuse, but the canvas will stretch before it rips. I coated mine with an elastomeric paint that should hold up well. George Dyson's kayaks are said to be the strongest boats out there. He uses an aluminum frame and a nylon skin coated with neoprene and/or hypalon (an elastomeric paint). Here is a quote about a Dyson double built by Peter Frantz and Ray Tien, "This boat is absolutely indestructible.  I am convinced that it will continue to be a kayak when I am long forgotten. I once committed the unspeakable atrocity of driving my car over the bow-line with the kayak strapped into the roof rack. The Yakima rack collapsed under the load, and the boat slammed down onto the roof of my Trooper.  Trashed the rack, yet I was unable to detect the slightest damage to the boat. We also surfed this boat onto a mussel bed on Round Island in the Gulf of Mexico with a week's worth of gear inside. We must have skidded 8 feet without water underneath us, with only cosmetic scratches in the neoprene coating on the hull." Skin on frame boats are as tough as you build the to be.

My boat weighs about 30 pounds, but I still have to build the coming and seat. I could have saved some weight by going with nylon or polyester instead of canvas. I will probably do that with my next skin boat.

I'm expecting that it should track very well especially with the external keel piece. It is a hard chined bouat so it should respond well to leaned turns, but this is all speculation untin I paddle it, and it is not getting done while I'm on the computer.

I included a link to a kayak registry that has reviews of several skin boats. If the link doesn't work here is the URL: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/btreecs/