Hello everyone,
Warning, this is a long message. I wish I was writing for more advice on the next step in my kayak project but it is on hold now. My building table collapsed overnight and it happened at a bad stage. The hull was stitched and the interior filleted and epoxy coated. The hull was stitched to the cradles which in turn were screwed to the table. The table collapsed in the middle of it's length and the kayak bellied with it and cracked the two side panels. The cracks occured about 12" from the scarf joints so I guess my scarfs were of good quality. It was dark tonight when I arrived home from work to find the collapse so there may be more damage I could not see. I am leaving tommorrow morning for a business trip and do not expect to be back in town until Saturday morning. I am going to leave the kayak as is for now because I have no time to do the necessary things to remove it without damaging it further. I was building the Greenland style S&G from the Sea Kayaker Fall '94 issue.

I need some advice. This could turn out to be a good thing. Let me give you some background. My main reason for building a kayak was money but once I started researching it I knew that I would want to build one even if I had more funds. I am new to this sport. So new in fact that I have only paddled sit on top kayaks and then only a few times. I am a fisherman and I love the water. I live in the Chesapeake Bay region. I chose the model to build because the plans were mostly free and the instructions were very easy to follow. I did not make a mass purchase of material. I have approximately 1 1/2 gallons of RAKA epoxy left and a few lengths of stitching wire. The rest of the materials were going to be purchased as they were needed. I live in a townhouse and my building enclosure was built around my back fence and the table I had built. I have a computer drafting business and did all the patterns using AutoCAD. I can plot them out again easily enough to recut the panels. I used luan from Home Depot and it was only $9 per sheet. I have reason to believe that it would be easier to start over rather than try and fix what damage has been done. I could be wrong.

I have learned a few things that may influence what I do next.

1. An enclosed secure structure to build in is a lot more important than what I originally thought.
2. My table was too large. After the initial plywood cutting and scarfing I would have been better suited by sawhorses alone (or maybe with a 2' wide top instead of 4').
3. I was very happy with the luan and it's quality. I would gladly use it again.
4. I was happy with my original scarfs but they could have been better with respect to the epoxy application.
5. At 5'8" and 170 lbs. I was worrying about the cockpit being too snug and had made a mental note to possibly redesign it to fit me better.
6. Being a beginner I was sure that this style kayak would be one that I would grow into and probably would not be a great fishing kayak. I am more interested in paddling with it than fishing. I had already thought to build another wider kayak for fishing.
7. I believe that I chose correctly by going with S&G as it suits my abilities.
8. My panels fit together well but some of my wavy cutting did cause small gaps. I would be much more diligent this time around.
9. I should have done more reality research prior to starting. Instead of trying out boats, I opted to use the Internet and books.

Overall to this point I have enjoyed the process. I did however believe that it would be more enjoyable with a better place in which to build. So I guess at this point I am wondering if a picture post showing the damage is worthwhile or should I start cleaning up and think about starting over. Since the interior was filleted I would practically have to tear the kayak apart to try and affix new side panels (assuming the bottoms are not damaged).

So should I repair? Should I build another kayak better suited to fishing and my abilities? What size of tolerances should I be looking at to fit in a cockpit? If I were to build another model will I find a suitable design with free offsets that I can draft and plot? I really do not want to pay for plans although I can see their value.

Thanks to everyone and the advice that got me this far. This is only a minor roadblock. I want to build a kayak and I will. Hopefully responses to this message will help me steer in the best direction for me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the longwinded message but I needed to spew this out somehow and my wife doesn't really give a hoot about kayaks or the building of one.

Thanks,

Tony