> I've read and re-read Nick's book and decided to build the Guilimont 17,
> but in a version streched to 18'. I've done the lofting and also set up
> the forms and was laying up the first shear strip when it broke. Got
> irritated with myself and have left it sit for a week. I've since read
> about the expedition and Night Heron in one of the strings above.
> Manouverability is not what I want in a Sea Kayak, a river boat-yes, not a
> Sea Kayak. In this interlude I've also found a kayak design program
> offered free on Mariner Kayaks page. At this point I'm trying to decide
> whether to continue or tear it all down and start all over. Any thoughts?

Get back in the shop and stop worrying. This is the main strip that lays out the interesting lines of your kayak and is worth breaking a bunch to get.

On my kayak (quite curvy), I used very thin (3/16" wide) strips to do this area and still got 10percent breakage, but it's well worth it b/c the lines are so cool.

If your breakage is toward the ends, another technique I used was to 'rip' the strip in half w/ a razor saw just up to and past the problem area. Its amazing how much more bendy this will now be and when you glue the area back together it still pretty much looks like one strip.

Another technique I used on real problem areas was to lay 2 strips down at once, but wrap them over and over w/ 1" webbing in the prob areas just as I was bending. It seemed stop some of the breaks at weak points in the wood.

Any way get back IN THERE!!!

otherwise what else is there to do?

-mick