I am in the process of deciding on a tandem design and need some input. I am trying to decide if the Great Auk Double is going to provide the stable platform I need as compared to the Guillemot Double (will the difference be percieved in daily use?), and if not, what can I do to the design to improve that. I have the station forms modeled in Microstation 3D for both. I took the original Great Auk offsets from Nick's book and repeated the center mold. I haven't worked out the deck, but plan to follow Nick's suggestions on his website. I know from the stability curves that the Guillemot Double is more stable than the Great Auk overall, so would increasing the forms on the Great Auk to a point that the beam equals that of the Guillemot Double move the stability curve (peak) of the Great Auk somewhere close to that of the Guillemot Double? Somehow I doubt it.

The reason I don't just go with the Guillemot double to begin with is that I may prefer a more traditional stem to build a "glue-lap hull, strip deck hybrid". I have faceted the hull on the Guillemot Double to 6 planks and the planking is possible, but the upswept ends may create a little problem or at least some pretty strange looking plank lines. I think the hard break at the sheer would help as well. I have to admit that creating a glue-lap Guillemot is an intriguing prospect, and knowing that the design is proven with no tweaking of the deck neccessary lends a good deal of reassurance.

I have also considered building the Reliance Tandem from the Ted Moore's book which looked like it would also fit the the bill in stability, and the traditional stem would make the glue lap construction easier. Any thoughts on the Reliance 20-6 design?

Why glue lap? To be honest, I just think it would look cool and I would love to try it. A tandem seems like a likely candidate due to its more pleasure-minded "purpose of being". The loss in performance would seem to be more easily absorbed with two paddlers tooling around either gunkholing, fishing or birdwatching. You can kind of see my intentions here.

I'm getting anxious to plot out some patterns and start cutting forms!

Thanks,
Mike