: Come on guys! The YMCA's legal eagles and their insurance carrier would
: have heart attacks if they found out that these kids (I'm assuming the
: campers are children) were going to make cardboard boats (or any other
: quickey lash-up) and attempt to sail them in anything but a back yard
: pool.

I would not want to speak for the Y's laegal department, but from what I've seen, the Y has an excellent aquatic program, which is geared to safety onthe water. At the same time, they don't shy away from adventure sports, like rock climbing and wall climbing, or kayaking, or SCUBA diving.

I didn't suggest the campers paddle a cardboard kayak. What I suggested was an actual boat, very similar in concept and execution to the skin and canvas (and other) fabric covered boats used to this day. While it may look flimsy, and it's lines are not as smooth as those of a kayak designed on a computer, the materials specified are suitable for short term use. In fact, some of the skin boat builders will quickly cover a frame with a plastic sheet or tarp to try it out. Then they can make changes to the frame if needed before they spend the time to stitch on a more durable skin.

: I've enjoyed watching races where the boats were made of empty milk cartons,
: wooden strips and duct tape. But I wouldn't put my kid in one.
: The boats were described as "learning props" and I hope that they
: never get beyond that.
: Charlie

Your concern for safety is certainly a main consideration, and should be commended. The request was for a prop. and these can be built as props just as easily. There was a link to building models using these materials, too.

Even if these boats never make it onto the water, it remains my view that there are still more lessons to be learned about kayaks from building a model of a skin-on-frame boat than from building a stitch and glue design.

With a S-O-F design it is fairly intuitive that the ribs or frames define the shape of the boat, and get bigger toward the center where the paddler sits. then the stringers hold the frames together and define the chines. They also sit on the outside of the frames keeping the skin from sagging against those frames and creating drag.

With a stitch and glue design it is a matter of perfectly copying a series of panels and connecting them. For someone who has never built something this way, it is hard to look at your handful of panels and see how they will become a boat. Without sufficient seam strength (which would be provided by the epoxy fillets and the glass tape in a full size kayak) the model loses its shape easily. Taping together 10 pieces of precut cardboard is not going to take a team of campers an hour, much less a day. Drawing out the pattern pieces on scrap cardboard would take more time for them, but this is simply one more level of abstraction away from kayaking.

Just my thoughts on their props. thanks for your comments.

PGJ