: Bill,

: I'm sure you've discovered the line used over and over with some variation in
: Putz's book that goes like, "This is an area where you can make your
: own design decision." These statements are driving me crazy!

You gotta love Putz's casual style, both in his writing and his plans.

As for the trestling, consider NOT doing any. Look at how Klepper has been bracing their boats for decades: with small pieces of birch plywood. Like the trestling it provides bracing and strength to the kayak frame. The stiffness added from these small rectangular panels is hard to beat. You can secure them with just a few screws, or use screws and marine glue (or epoxy). Look at the picture below, and you can see some large open areas where they do not have any cross bracing from panels. I would extrapolate from this that trestling may not be necessary over every inch of the length of the boat, so do yor best, and don't worry if you skip a spot.

They use solid panels for their floor, too. Since they have a flatter bottom to their hull than Putz does they can get away with it. Of course, using panels to hold the keel to the bottom chines instead of making floorboards would allow you to sit a bit lower, or mount a seat, and it would eliminate the necessity of making and fitting those floor board mounts. Since you are going to have some kind of floor in there anyhow, I think the weight would be about the same.

anyhow, here is a picture of the Klepper frame. You might like to browse their website, too:

www.klepper.com

PGJ