: Hi
: I've been a lurker on the forum for a few years - I have build a Tom Yost
: Sea Tour 17R (great fun!) and want to build a wooden kayak.
: Criteria: S&G not stripper (time, skill, workshop and tool constraints)
: Preferably full size plans rather than lofting (lazy ...!)
: Not a kit (international freight costs)
: Me: Height 6ft 4", size 12.5 uk shoes (14 US?) 35" leg, weight 220
: lbs
: Usage: rivers, lakes, and shore. Weekend camping only

How do you like your Sea Tour? Does it fit well and handle as you like? If so, why not build it in plywood?

Use the existing frames you have, or your original drawings, and trace, or draw out the existing plywood forms. Now redraw these forms 1/2 inch smaller on all sides. I'd use a block of 1/2 thick wook as a guide and just sketch in new lines. Cut your building forms along the new lines, giving you frames which are smaller than what is in your boat. Rip some wood to 1/2 inch thickness for your working stringers. Use brads to tack these stringers along the edges of the forms, aligning them as Tom shows when making aluminum frames. The thickness of the wood strips on your reduced-size frames will bring things back to the original specs.

You son't need all the stringers--just one for the keel, one for the center of the deck, and two on each side for the tops and bottoms of the sidewalls.

Rip some plywood to strips around a foot wide, or whatever size is convenient to handle, and scarf them to create pieces the full length of the boat. Clamp these strips to the stringers and use a pencil to outline the size the panel should be. Cut on the lines and you have a hull bottom, side, or deck piece.

You can assemble these pieces by the stitch and glue method, or you can use the older version called plank on chine. Your stringers are your chines, and the plywood panels are your planks. Spread a bead of polyurethane construction cement, or epoxy glue on the chine, lay the panel in place, and secure it with clamps, small brass screws, or brads. Trim any overhang and lay on the next panel the same way.

Before you attach the last deck piece, pull out every other building frame, and loosen any that you keep in, so that it can be easily removed from the cockpit.

One advantage to plank on chine construction is that if you use a good quality ecterior plywood, or a marine grade plywood, and you are careful that your seams are completely sealed with the polyurethane or epoxy, you do not need to use any fiberglass. Sealing the wood with a couple coats of epoxy resin is optional. A few coats of a good quality marine varnish or boat enamel are all you need to protect the wood.

Of course if you want to put a layer of glass fabric on the exterior for protection against dings and dents, go right ahead.

A few years ago Mike Hanks built a plywood version of George Putz's SOF "Walrus" design using this method. You might search the archives for "plywood wally" and find some of his pictures. He had already built the skin on frame versions and found it fast to basically cover the thing with a "skin" of thin plywood rather than fabric.

Hope this helps

PGJ