: We put on the last coat of poly on today and installed the deck lines. We
: just need to carve a junior-sized Greenland stick and we will be ready to
: launch. The total time on the project was just under 40 hours. After nine
: coats of poly, the final weight of the boat is 15 lbs. We will post a
: launch report after we get it wet.

: Regards,

: Marcel

Marcel

The boat looks great and the entire project was done very well. As was your site.
Have you launched the Kids-Yak yet?
How did the float work out?
After they have been used a few times, I'd like to know how they worked out.
I had figured on using a different style attachment and float system but yours looks so easy both to use and remove that I am wondering if it wouldn't be easier.

The reason I ask: If and When McKinley leans the boat, ( provided she is working on that yet ), is there enough movement to allow enough lean to aid in turning the boat?
I had the idea to put SS blind nuts on the deck-beam just under the float brace and bolt the assembly to the deck. But, I was going to "bend" the brace in a winged shape sort of like this:
o-\___/-o ( hope that makes sense ) Where the bottom bar is the mounting point on the deck. Floats raised just off the water.
It would be kind of like a gull wing affect. The floats were to be off the water about the distance of freeboard for the boat. I was hoping to allow some lean capability, while stopping the inevitable "flip" if they got over centered or off balanced.
The idea is still worth trying, but would take much more work and I'd have to work around the bolt holes in the deck when they got to a stage where they didn't need the floats any more. I could just silicon a flat washer and the bolt and run it back into the holes when the float wasn't attached. ??

But, back to your method.... if there's enough slack in the bungies/decklines to allow the float some play, it would accomplish the same thing and when removed would just leave the decklines.

My concern is that if there is enough slack allowed in the system to allow leaning for turns, would it work it's way over to one side or the other and therefore become inoperative on one side?? The stops in the brace would seem to keep them from moving. I'm interested in how that has worked out.

Any insights on this idea or comments on how the floats have worked so far and their affect on the boats performance....??

thanks..

Rehd