Kelly,
I am usually not the first guy to jump into controversy on this board. Mostly, I like appreciating the wonderful boats that folks make gathering all the great shop tips and enjoying the very fun people that populate this board. I hope on occasion that I drop something on the board that is useful to other boat builders. Usually I think that is sort of fanciful given what I see other people creating on this board.

However, I think I'm going to jump into this one boots first. I think your talking out of both sides of your mouth, and I'm gonna call you on it.
Yes they should be paid but...... Kelly you were right a jsut didn't know when to puctuate the sentence. Kelly life isn't about being theoretical about ones pricipals. Life is about living them out.

Kelly, I know what it is to want a beautiful sleek wooden kayak at the same time that I'm raising a family. I am a stay at home Dad. I know the trade off of time verses money. I quit my job to do the most important work I'm ever going to do. And yeah it cut into my adventure budget. Ben der doing' that.

What ever place allow s you to buy a mercades baot on the installmet plan. Buy the plans ave up buy the wood save up, buy the fiberglass save up, and in the end you end up with the prettiest thing in on your favorite bit of water.

I also build kayaks as a hobby. The more I am involved in doing this the more I enjoy the community of Wooden boat builders. Its like stepping into a group of
people you feel you already know. One of the things that goes with that feeling is a fairness doctrine. The other is a absolute intention to help and share with anyone
who want to build a boat. On the second account I have found the paid professionals and the other hobbyist s are like a bunch of enthusiastic puppies piling on with
idea after idea. Encouragement, congratulations safety tips etc. This group is a bout sharing.

Kelly, that's not just the builders. It includes the designers. FIrst I think most of us start out with a heaping plate of gratitude. If it were not for designers and boat
building supply stores and professional boatwrights this hobby would be a pretty thin one. These people are the people who took the risks quit their day jobs to
design kayaks , build BBS boards, make strip ripping places, sell plans or make boats for a living have with out exception risked it all and we hobbyists benefit big
time. We hobbyists who build one boat a year, or one boat a life time often forget the prices paid by those who risked it all to pursue and advance what is our
passions.

This past fall I sat in a free work shop listening to a guy tell me how to make a paddle he sells for 400 dollars. That guy doesn't have a lock on his chicken coop and
I felt like a fox eating the best meal ever. I have that feeling often in this hobby.

Now Guys like Moore, Macks (Shada *2), Babina,Hazen, Joe Greeley, George Roberts, Grant Goltz, Michael Vermouth, john Harris, Vaclav Stejskal and
probably at least a dozen more are perhaps the funniest set of business men I have ever met. They regularly give away the farm. Their are free designs out there by
the zillions. All you have to do is ask. These guys are a very silly bunch of business men they give there good stuff away. But please don't tell them or act un grateful
most of us are standing under the fawcett with buckets trying to get the good stuff.

You can find them in wooden boat magazines popular mechanics and on line. The off sets are usually in their books all you have to do is learn to loft and the books
usually teach you how to do that too. The cost of getting plans is often as little as trip to a library looking for a back copy of the magazines. At wooden boat shows
you'll see blue prints of trials or boat they decided not to sell in there line up passing hands to those who are a bit tight in the wallet. I know starving college students
who are building boats mostly on the good will of some designers who'd rather see ya in a boat then not affording one. That seems to be how it is with these guys.
They want you to fall in love with a wooden boat. They don't want to see you trapped on the land wanting a boat.

But, Then they don't stop there. They build web sites and BBS and forums they baby sit boat builders through the delivery process by phone fax and e-mail. They
spend big bucks on naval engineering design software and powerful computers to run the whole design build order and accounting thing. Its no small out lay. They
travel thousands a mile a year. Showing what they design build make. Giving work shops.

At the same time professional boat builders and paddle makers are out there giving away there trade secrets every day. Helping hobbyists get it not just right but
sweat the details to something beautiful. If you want to design your own all you have to do is ask and the answers come from all 4 corners of the globe including
designers and professional boat wrights.

Frankly I am amazed at their generosity. I sure am not going to down them for one sentence on page 19 of a book saying and Oh by the way if you don't want to
loft it and you want to buy a set of stupid proof plans that you just glue to a piece of plywood and cut out. Well from my stand point I say GOD Bless 'em.

I run into folks again and again who are willing to spend from 50 dollars to 3000 dollars on wood for there boat, butt hey dont' want to spend between $15 and a
$100 dollars for a set of plans...... They want the idea for free. I get folks who want to borrow my forms, but not buy the design. And the crazy thing is they usually
can get a fabulous design absolutely legally free from a first rate designer.

Look Kelly, I am a flinty old Scandahoovian New Englander. When I drop a quarter it leave a sizable crater. I know what it takes to risk all and start a business. I
know what it takes to design something until its perfect. I know what it takes to baby-sit a computer and network system. I can't imagine what it takes to baby-sit
global set of customers building boats often for the first time. I even know what it takes to write a book. Believe me your getting a good deal. I also know what it is
to a business to give away freebies.

Kelly, I'm grateful, I go out of my way to spread the few dollars I have to spend on this hobby around. Why? Because like you I am selfish. I want these guys
working for me. Ya see I enjoyed building and paddling their last boat so much I can't wait to see what comes out of their genius next time. I want professional
builders and suppliers deep in the profitable black because I want them to continuing to afford there generosity giving away of time and idea. I want to be able to
call at 3 in the morning and cry in my beer when my form twists and I can't figure out how to fix it. Most of all I want o

OK sounds like you and I are in the same business raising kids. I admire that. Its a sacrifice that does good. However, I think your barking up the wrong tree on this
one.

How bought showing up on this board for the first time saying. Saying thanks. Thanks for everything. Thanks for putting something that was well out of my reach
and skill level into my financial range of opportunity, Thank you for showing me how. Thanks for spending a lifetime of hours and thousands of dollars a piece to
building me a very rewarding hobby and an endlessly expanding set of designs. Next time you forget what your getting call a Naval Architect, a computer networks
enginneer, a help desk guy, an author/publisher, and a master Woodworker. and get hourly quotes and then add up the cost. I think you'll discover your getting the
deal of a lifetime.

HEres to page 19, Nex time print it in ALL CAPS

!RUSS

PS Also if its free bees your looking for, look a little deeper in the board. There are at least three different designs that those nasty bad d designers have posted or given directions too. And that's just in the past month.