. . . just ignore him.

One of the advantages of a bulletin board over a list is that you dont need to read any post you dont want.

I have been mostly a lurker on this list since January, while I built my Guillemot Coastal. At first, the list struck me as a chaos of conflicting advice. But you soon learn to filter the information. It's all part of the "market place of ideas" that free speech is all about.

I quickly decided that, since I was building one of Nick's boats and he seems to have a lot of strip kayaks behind him (and he was giving me generous e-mail support for my NF Woodworks kit) -- I was going to stick with his advice when it conflicted with others. But part of the fun of home-building is to experiment a bit, try new things, make your own mistakes, and apply your own judgment to all of the advice you hear. The same goes for this bulletin board. Everything you read needs to be filtered by your own judgment. Perhaps the header to this BB should have a warning that not all of the advice on this Board is to be believed (without necessarily naming names).

To Nick's credit, he has not responded to George's criticism, nor has he tried to silence George. I havent got my copy of Nick's book yet (actually it was George's endorsement that pushed me over the edge to order it), but I suspect that it is filled with common sense, practical advice on how to put together a strip boat -- just like his instruction sheet, and just like all his e-mail advice to me.

I gather George does not like strip built boats. If there were many catastrophic failures, as he theorizes, then I gather we would have heard about some of them by now on this list. So far, on the thread about boat failures, only two people had any anecdotal evidence of problems with strippers. One of them was Nick (so much for the theory that he is hiding the frailty of his boats). Both reports involved unusual stresses -- side surfing into another boat, and dropping one foot onto a rock. Neither failure appears to have been catastrohpic.

I apologize for rambling a little. I just want to put in a plug for free speech. I also want to put in a plug for Nick, who has probably done more to promote the art of strip building kayaks and making the process accessible to home builders than anyone else, with little apparent concern for personal profit or ego.

Meanwhile, I am having a great time in my Coastal -- I am working a trans-Hudson paddle into my commute to work a couple of days a week!

> I agree with the guy who said let this forum be about building,
> not about flaming. I also agree with the guy who said he is entertained
> by George's ranting and raving. After a while, though, I start to
> get irritated. Everybody on this list is pretty reasonable, except
> George. Everyone sounds pretty rational, except George. George kind
> of sticks out. He reminds me a little of Tim Ingram on the WaveLength
> mailing list and rbp. Everyone tried to put up with Tim, something
> like your looney cousin who you have to put up with because he's family.
> But after a while the delete key just wasn't enough and a new mailing
> list was born that banned one person: Tim. Let me tell you, it was
> like a breath of fresh air. I hope George can moderate himself in
> the future, but if he can't, maybe we should take a vote and see how
> many people think George is making a positive contribution to this
> BB. If he was banned I wouldn't mind a bit.