: I'm looking for something that is quick to build, inexpensive, and will
: handle my size and weight (6', 215 lbs). For this boat I'm not necessarily
: looking for cargo capacity, and I expect to be using it mostly on calm
: water. If you have a suggestion among your designs (or anyone else's, for
: that matter) I'd like to hear it.
: Chris

Hey Chris,
If you're looking for a calm water day boat, then I would consider a recreational kayak. Short and wide. Skin on frame for these designs seems to be the quickest and least expensive to build. Any strip plans could work, just enlarge them to meet your specs. Better yet, Nick's Guillemot S&G temp forms would be perfect. There are many plans to choose from and which plans you choose makes very little difference because you would scale them up to big size and only use every other form. In doing this, it hardly resembles the original design.

I wanted a fishing kayak that I could build in my bedroom (13 ft length max) to use in lakes/ponds/rivers and have something very stable for my friends to use on short day trips. I chose Vaclav's Cape Ann design and scaled the forms up by 1.33x and shortened the boat by 0.66x. This creates a short (13 ft) and wide (28") kayak, to be appropriately named "Fat Boy". I expect it to be slow, but stable, and be very manuverable. It should support my size, at 6 ft and 200 lbs, and even some of my slightly bigger friends.

For the forms, I'm using 3/8" Baltic Birch (5 ply) and Mohagany stringers (3/4"x5/8"). On the next, however, I will find lighter stringer material. I'll try Dyson's nylon, but don't know yet what finish to use. The seat will be carved minicel and will have hip foam or braces to hold me centered in this huge cavity. I also plan to wood strip this deck and have a radical coaming recess to give my thighs something to come in contact with. Sound do-able?????

If anybody (or everybody for that matter) doesn't agree that this is a valid design (for it's intended purpose) please let me know before I get any further along. I'd really appreciate it. By the way I've also got the Biadarka forms back on a strongback and plan on juggling between it and the fat boy and the Cirrus and the... paddles... and models... carvings and....

Please let me know what you think Chris, and keep us posted on what you decide.

A big thanks goes out to you, Tom, for your innovative spirit, ideas and a terrific web site. Thanks.
SMF