My wife is Swedish. Her parents live in the Archipeligo outside Stockholm and are out on the sea a lot. Her father, my father-in-law, would love a sea kayak, and I'd love to build him one, but we live in the UK and I suspect transport costs would be silly.

But, this Christmas is one of the years we will be over in Sweden for Christmas. I'm trying to come up with a plan to build him a kayak while we're over there. It looks like it might just be possible if I do an SOF, and make the frames, cockpit coaming etc over here then assemble it over there. I'm looking at Tom Yost's Sea Bee: the short length would help for loading it onto their motorboat for taking out on day trips, and the simple construction would help to built it quickly too.

So, a question for any Swedes out there: how easy is it to buy good, clear, knot-free lengths of softwood suitable for making SOF stringers from in Sweden? Are they available everywhere or no-where? And what about polyurathane or equivalent for treating the skin?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Dave.

(Yes, I know I could go all the way and build a folder, but I just like wooden frames and I know Henrik would too.)