: Nice work Robert, you are moving right along. Any plans to show your repairs
: in the final product?

: How about "Frankenstien Stitches" to show the various breaks and
: cutouts. They don't need to be bold but just visible enough to point out
: to the curious.

: There would probably be a big payoff in beer at the beach from your audience
: as you tell your story!

: grant

Grant,

I've had a few suggestions from various people to leave the scars visible. The simple fact is that I can't hide them all unless I paint the whole thing from bow to stern. I'm thinking that if I can earn a few beers in front of a campfire by telling war stories about the old scars well then, hey, I know what's important. I figure the scars should remain for posterity. Besides, I've already built a shiney new kayak to replace the rebuild so the rebuild can stay as marked up as it is. For the most part all I really want to do is retain the original paint job I did on the rebuild. It was a cool design I made up while sipping my Chartreuse over ice. Two improvements I will make to the rebuild will be to line the cockpit with Kevlar and embed a strip of metal in the bow. Since I like to paddle in the ice I'll go with Mike's suggestion and create the world's smaller ice breaker. Besides, the bow, stern and keel took one hell of a beating so I figure I might as well experiment with this yak and see if I can strengthen it without any serious addition of weight.

Robert N Pruden