: Is it the friend that weighs over three hundred pounds, or do you just want a
: heavy boat?

the big guy is, in fact, my uncle. really.
: Since you have just built a wee lassie, and I assume you still have the
: forms, you can stretch the length of that wee lassie another foot or two
: to get the displacement needed for carrying a 300 pound paddler (solo)
: just by spacing the forms an inch or two further apart.

: Or, consider the idea of a boat that was longer and wider, but had similar
: lines to the wee lassie. You could do this by taking the front forms ( at
: the conventional spacing, and moving them two or three feet forward --
: leaving a gap between them and the back forms. You would then just need to
: make a two or three forms to fill in that gap. As a start, stretch some
: strips over the forms that you have and use them to determine the size and
: shape needed for the "missing" middle forms. Cut a mockup of a
: "form" from cardboard and put it in the gap, adjusting it to the
: right size. then you can trace this onto plywood for a more substantial
: form to use for the construction.

macs book includes the plans for the wee lassie 2 which is 1.5 ft longer. laying out the forms from the book is really easy, plywood is no cost, time means nothing, strips are cut and machined.
: Have you tried letting the 300 pound friend paddle the wee lassie? How far
: down does it sink? I believe it should sink about 4 inches with a 150 to
: 175 pound paddler, so with a 300 pound paddler it will probably sink
: another 2 1/2 to 4 inches. To put that in more nautical terms, with a 150
: pound paddler it should have 4 inches of draft, and with with a 300 pound
: paddler it should have about 6 1/2 to 8 inches of draft. Freeboard, or the
: amount of the side of the boat that is above the water, will decrease as
: the draft increases (as the boat goes lower into the water with a heavier
: paddler the amount of the side above the water goes down). You usually
: want at least 6 inches of freeboard if you are paddling on calm lakes, and
: more freeboard as the likelyhood of waves or rough water increases. If
: your larger paddler is comfortable with the wee lassie, you can build one
: with a higher gunwale by adding more strips to the sides. This would
: involve adding 1x2 or 1x3 strips to each form to extend them so you could
: strip lower (with the hull being built upside down, of course)

when the big guy took the boat out it had about two inches of freeboard. the mountain lakes we paddle can get a little too wild for that.
: PGJ

all that aside; what's wrong with haveing an interest in design? i've got some time to kill while waiting for the yellow cedar to dry so i can rip it for my spring run. i'm also going to have a look at carlson's program.

thanks for your input, paul, i do appreciate it.

best regards;

daren.......