: Hmm...Cunningham recommends hip width plus two fists. For me that's
: 17" for the hips and 4" for each fist for a total of 25". Now
: you're
: making me wonder if that's going to be too wide. I'm a novice paddler,
: but I don't necessarilly want a novice boat. Should I go with the
: measurement based on the book?

: Chris
Take a look at a few plastic boat sites and see what they are doing for measurements.

25" Very recreational. Good fishing platform.
24" Big boy kayaks and high volume boats for tripping.
23" Pretty standard. Still a lot of stability.
22" Performance oriented.
19-21" High performance. Lower to very low stability. Fast.

Now lets look at Nicks boats.

21" Guillemot. I find this boat to be stabile. Good in the rock gardens.
20" Night Heron. Never been in it. Low initial stability.
25" Great Auk. Big Boat. Very stabile. Good tripper.

Plastic boats (and thier better looking glass brothers) are made for the mass market. Seams they go for immediate first impression initial stability which gets lots of boats out the door. But their are performance models available too. Check out the current designs. They run the whole gammet. Should give you some ideas.

Also, there is more to the stability game than beam. Hull shape, length, wetted surface, and draft come into play.

If you get a chance take out some boats of varoius makes or builds. You'll be supprised at how differently 2 boat with the same length and width react.

As far as the Morris boat goes... My 2 cents worth of knowledge are to bring the beam in 1 to 2 inches. Well, unless your going for a large mouth bass.

Roger

PS. Everything I just wrote is purely unscientific.