: The one benefit that someone pointed out a while back (perhaps it was
: Shawn?), is that you could make a hard travel cover for the cockpit. That
: would be cool.

: Ross

twas moi, but another idea of passing interest w/ this whole approach is of convertible kayaks.

say you started out with a longish yak(18ft and maybe a bit wider than usual(24ish inches))and designed it so that it was just possible to strip thru the cockpit location. and you built is as usual w/the cockpit but no bulkheads yet.

and the day before you were to just try it out, you took out the jigsaw and cut a huge oval arount the cockpit say 3feet back and 3feet forward and 2 or 3 inches wider that the cockpit and lifted this whole ass'y out. inserted some of the forms back in and restripped to the new hole. put 2 cockpits in that like in a double. glassed it. pulled out the forms and made a typical hatch flange around the huge oval(maybe a bit stronger, but not much). drilled holes and set in ss tnuts from underneath all around. used the holes to set the two tops. used ss machine bolts to screw down w/ say a silicone or whatever gasket.

2 kayaks for the space of one.

or pull out either and put in a sliding seat for an open shell?

-the idea would be to use airbags as floatation and support.maybe could even have hatches at the ends, maybe even bulkheads.

-mick