Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Another Review
By:Keith Kaste
Date: 5/12/1998, 2:30 pm

If I may ask, does anybody know George? Is he for real? His web site says he will design and build you a stitch and glue kayak to your specifications for $1000. Has anybody done this? Has anybody ever bought anything from him? I don't want to be disrespectful, but he doesn't sound very credible.

> Nick's book on kayak construction is for the coffee table not
> the shop.

> Included in the problems with the book are

> 1) There is no construction engineering philosophy presented.
> Example: One takes 1/4" wood strips planes and sands then to
> some unknown thinness. This unknown thickness of wood is expected
> to support the unspecified design loads.

> 2) There is no testing philosophy presented. Example: Of the
> best cloth/epoxy shops only a few can consistently produce work with
> less than a 40% variation in strength. They do it by removing variability
> from their materials and processes. With the many sources of fabric
> and epoxy and with the different techniques and shop conditions used
> the variation of strength between home builders and Nick must be more.
> Yet Nick gives no test(s) to determine if your construction or even
> his meets any standard.

> 3) There are no warnings of probable catastrophic failures. Examples:
> Both the glue/wood bond and the epoxy/wood bond fail if they get wet
> as in after minor hull damage - the boat falls apart. Epoxy/aluminum
> bonds (as in foot braces) fail after a period of time measured in
> months due to normal exposure to moisture - the foot braces fall off
> facing the paddler with a loss of control.

> Given Nick's background in engineering he should have done better.
>

Messages In This Thread

Re: Another Review
Keith Kaste -- 5/12/1998, 2:30 pm
Re: Another Review
George Burns -- 5/12/1998, 9:03 pm