: Okay, take "collapsible" and "cheap" only in the best
: senses of the words.

: Play with a "what if" for a moment...

: What if I made a cheap knockoff of the Kahuna by feathercraft? I'd need
: properly sized ribs made of plywood instead of their "injection
: molded polycarbonate", and instead of the aluminum stringers, used
: PVC conduit pipe (I got some of this stuff and abused it mightily with a
: hammer with no material failure - the grey stuff not white plumbing PVC.
: No way that aluminum or wood could have withstood that attack so well).
: Then I could make a skin of the recently mentioned PVC material used on
: billboards, or scraps from a truck tarping company.

: Cheap? Yes. Light? Enough. Doable? Maybe. But what do you more knowledgeable
: folks think?

: The key to the whole thing, IMO, would be to have a really good rib design
: since that is what would determine the boat's shape. Any ideas how I could
: get tracings of the Kahuna's ribs and measurements between the ribs?

: deliriously,
: Wayne

just some ideas on the frame only
say you did the forms in pvc as well, using T's to make the forms so they were built up w/ sections of tube and semi regular fittings. Say the stringers were nested up or down or consequetively down so on packing each part of the stringer nested eache other. and say you 4 inflatable pakc bags to get the tension.

for stiffnes, you'd need larger sections, but the advantage would be inside storage for outside stringers and form members.

You'd have to pay big attention to the skin however. the fitting involved would be most important. a starting point might be to use the layouts for a stitch and glue for the panels, sew togther inside out but put in web loops say every foot or so along ea seam(or a fold), put back the usual way thread the stringers, and pull in pack bags and inflate, short sponsons on ea side between the pack bags. interior bags too. cross between inflatable and skin. inflation of the bags provides lots of the structure.

lot of work to get right, probably have to make 2 or 3 yaks to get it down.

i wonder about 2 opposing skins, web clamp on a form in between, say just behind the cockpit, the back being conical, the front being conical plus the cockpit overlapping the back and cinched down over a rigid form for water tightness there only. get a break in water flow unfortunately.

-mick