I would say that sof is the way to go. They are relatively cheap to build, user friendly, non-toxic, reasonably simple to construct and most of all they are a whole lot of fun to put together.

I am a high school teacher in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. This is the second year in which I have been teaching kayak building to my students. We are nearing completion of a Guillemot stripper and a sof using Robert Morris' book. Based on my experience I would offer the following suggestions:

1. Buy one of the sof books and first build a kayak by yourself or with another one the teachers who will be helping you. START NOW! You will need to have this experience before you build them with a large group.

2. Try to find a space where you and your club can work without a time constraint. Having a big space like a cafeteria is great but not with a deadline hanging over your head.

3. You don't have to build several at once (which is what I assume you had in mind). Build them one at a time. You don't need a lot of space to build a sof.

4. Increase the 5 day building time. You will most likely need more time.

Anything is possible but building several kayaks in 5 days without previous experience is a daunting task.

Good luck with the project.

Greg Hughes

: I am a teacher at a high school in Maine. I'm an advisor for the outing club,
: and want to get the club involved in sea kayaking. We (the students and a
: couple teachers) will be building some kayaks for the club to use, and I'm
: looking for some suggestions on what kind of kayaks we should build. Some
: things to consider: *The kayaks will be used on a nearby small lake for
: training, and on sheltered area's off Maine's coast for weekend camping
: trips. They will be used by relatively inexperienced kayakers (high school
: students, most of whom will have zero experience when they first start
: kayaking with the outing club).

: *During Spring vacation we will take over the entire cafeteria for building,
: so we will have plenty of space. But we will only have one week! We can
: build small parts before the vacation, but anything that requires a lot of
: space has to be done during that one vacation week.

: *It would be good if we could build folding kayaks, because we are planning a
: trip to the Sea of Cortez a year from now, and it would be nice if we
: didn't have to rent kayaks there. But folding kayaks seem too challenging.

: *The construction will be paid for by the high school students. Cost is a
: very big concern. The cheaper, the better.

: *Most of the people involved in construction have no building experience.
: They are intelligent and motivated....but not experienced.

: I'm thinking we should build doubles because it seems that taking a group of
: high school students out in doubles is safer than taking the same group
: out in singles. I think SOF kayaks are probably better, because we can
: make a lot of the parts before the vacation starts...and then put it all
: together during the vacation.

: Looking over this site, I am very intrigued by Tom Yost's FAP designs,
: especially the "Combi" folding double (it would be nice if we
: had some single kayaks for training purposes, and doubles for weekend
: camping trips).

: So I have basically two question.

: 1) What kind of kayaks should we build?
: 2) Are there any specific designs you would recommend?

: Arthur Ruff