Hi Mick,
thank you for your input on this.

: i designed in large upturns: just
: under 9.5" at the bow and just under 8.5" at the stern

You're right that is a lot of upturn! I don't think I've seen a playboat with that much rocker.

: I don't know your building or designing ability - but if you dont have
: drawing or modelling skill, i would highly recommend that you built your
: yak as just glass over shaped foam or pieces of strips over forms - much
: more forgiving approaches. Stitch and glue, tho' simple in build approach,
: is THE most difficult to design aesthetically AND volumetrically to
: achieve the tiny shapes of playaks.

My skills at designing are very limited. I'm only 19 years old right now, and this is only my second build. My first was a Merganser 17 I built with plans purchased from Shearwater Kayaks a couple years back. So this is my first boat made of my own design.

With not much skill on CAD programs, I'm basically just building from the ground up. I started by cutting out the basic hull shape that I wanted and propping up both ends while weighing down the middle with a few weights to achieve my desired rocker. From there I have pretty much been building the kayak around my body, sitting in the middle and making paper templates of the shape that I want.

Right now I am just stitching together my rough cut panels to make sure they fit together correctly. Once I have the boat pieced together, I will take the whole thing apart to bevel the panels and make minor changes to make the fits tighter.

It seems like a lot of work to just throw a boat together without much planning, but I like the challenge. So far, it has gone fairly smoothly. Your input and studying pictures of Facetious have helped me out a lot. I do have to admit that I have kind of stolen the basic panel shapes of Facetious to get the shape that I want out of my kayak. I hope you don't mind.

I will try to post pictures of my progress for you to see.

Thanks again for your input, Mick. You are making this a lot easier for me than it would have been on my own.

Brian Boston