: Has anybody modified or designed a strip built sit on top? I've got the old
: rotomould SOT that I use for flyfishing but would love to lose some of the
: weight and increase the visual appeal. Any thoughts?

Basically you can use any hull design for a sit-on-top kayak, but those that are slightly wider will be more stable. The difference comes in changing the lines of the deck. You need to figure out how you'll arrange your cockpit cut-out, and how high your seat is.

Basically, you want to start with a very long cockpit opening. Put solid bulkheads at each end and 3 to 5 inches of rigid foam on the floor of the cockpit, scoop out a seat and footrests, and cover with a layer of glass cloth and pigmented epoxy resin to keep the foam from deteriorating. That will raise your seating position and your center of gravity -- which is why you'll appreciate the wider hull designs.

You can use sheets of insulating foam from the building supplies area of your local home center for filling the cockpit area. This comes in 1 and 2 inch thicknesses. You could probably use a single 4x8 foot sheet of 2 inch thickness material -- probably under $12. Cut it into 3 pieces: First cut one piece 2x4 feet, leaving a 6x4 foot remainder, which you can split into two pieces 2 x 6 feet.depending on hoe you plan to fit this in, you may want to make those last two pieces 21 and 27 inches wide -- or what ever combination works best.

Put the two 6 foot long piece in the cockpit, add the 4 foot long piece at the back end as a raised seat, and carve away. You cna use construction adhesive to hold the layers of foam together while you work on them. Once they are covered by the glass cloth and epoxy resin they'll stay together.

This provides a good deal of flotation, and really reduces the amount of water that might possibly get in the cockpit. In addition, your closed storage areas provide even more flotation, and of course they can be used for holding gear.

Check the archives for any articles by or to Paul Stomski. He built a convertible triple that allowed the center cockpit to be outfitted like a sit-on-top. It also converted the forward and aft hatches into cockpits for two.
I think he named his boat the Kulia.

Google.com has some nice links to follow if you search for Paul Stomski kayak
He has a webpage that showed his work, too.

http://www.aloha.net/~stomski/kulia.htm

hope this helps.

PGJ