> Do you have experience in boats of that construction? I've got to be out
> of my mind to consider another boat, but as long as the topic of
> high-strength/low weight is being pursued, I wonder if a more resilient
> type of construction would be worthwhile in real world paddling. At least
> for unladen day paddling.

No, you are not out of your mind to consider alternates. The cliche is that one should not try to reinvent the wheel, but if you look at real-life engineering the wheel is reinvented practically everyday. Just look at the variety of auto and bicycle wheels on the market to see what I mean.

The same goes with kayak (and other boat) materials. People (like Putz and Dyson) have adapted older designs to take advantage of newer construction technologies.

Are these technologies more resiliant? Better believe it!

The grande dame of consumer kayaks is probably the Klepper. It's been around about 90 years -- still with a wood frame and a fabric skin. The hulls are now made from hightech coatings on synthectic fiber fabric, with a natural fiber deck -- and the company estimates these things will last 50 years. I know of their older materials lasting over 25 years. Check their webpage www.klepper.com for some real nice info on their boats.

If a fabric skin is strong enough to last a half a century, why are we worrying about whether a skin made of two layers of glass fabric, one layer of wood strips (or 3 layers of wood veneer plys) and several coats of plastic resin will hold up? For most purposes, if you had a frame that could take the loads, you could cover it with NO wood -- just the glass cloth and a waterproofing coating. In my opinion, beyond that you would seem to have a bit of excess in your engineering and design.

The main reason for using wood strips, or plywood panels, is to replace the wood frame of a fabric kayak with a monocoque structure that is of suitable strength. In this design the skin serves as the structural support, besides being the part that keeps the water out. If you are willing to compromise on the monocoque ideal and add to the internal structure -- reinforcing at the sheer with a strip of thicker wood, for example -- you should be able to build a nearly infinite variety of boats which are either frame supported, skin supported, or partial mixtures of both.

Just my opinion

Paul G. Jacobson