My wife has a Hobie Mirage, a polyethylene sit-on-top powered by pedaled fins. Though I've built three stitch-and-glue wooden kayaks, I sometimes like to take this boat out because I can pedal it for hours without getting numb feet or legs. I've been wishing I had a pedal-powered boat as appealing as the wooden kayaks, and have begun to wonder whether one couldn't build a sit-on-top stripper which could be used with the Hobie pedaled fins. The Mirage has a slot through the (double) hull through which the fins are inserted after putting the boat in the water. So my question is, does anybody have experience with building a sit-on-top stripper? I think I've seen at least one picture of one. Am I naive to imagine that strip-building technology would lend itself just as well to building a kayak with the deck intact but dented in (a sit-on-top) as it would to building one with a big round hole in the top?
Mike Plumer
Poulsbo, WA