Hi Francis,

If you've already got a British kayak, copy its kayak size. Modify the Guillemot cockpit recess offsets to match the smaller cockpit. In general, the cockpit recess is about 3" wider than the coaming in front (and about 3" ahead of the front end of the coaming), 0.5"-1" at the sides, and 2-3" around the rear of the coaming.

As far as a hung seat, you pretty much need to build it from glass--it would be pretty difficult to build it with dimensional wood stock. It would be pretty inefficient to try to cold mould it from veneers (but would be beautiful!). Again, if you already have a British boat whose seat you like, build a mold off of it, and produce a reproduction fiberglass seat. Screw that seat to the cheekplates, or copy the entire seat/coaming, and install it as one unit on your boat.

Why do you want the "English-style" small cockpit? Performance? Panache? Double-jointed knees? I don't see how a small cockpit could perform better than a keyhole cockpit with an implosion bar-equipped sprayskirt. Thoughts anyone?

I could see if you are used to using a knee tube right in the center of the deck that you use for knee braces--wider knee braces as found in a keyhole cockpit would change your bracing and rolling style quite a bit.

Shawn

: I've been browsing the guillemot kayaks designs and am considering building
: the Expedition Single as a winter project. However, I have a question. The
: boat, from what I can tell from the pictures, seems to be very much
: 'American'; in particular the cockpit *seems* very large and does not have
: an integral seat. My question is; do the plans show an alternative
: 'English' stlyle small cockpit with integral seat? Supplementary question;
: if not, would it be easy to modify the design?

: Many thanks,

: Francis.