The majority of the modern books and plans are nothing more than a description of the techniques used to build a kayak, tyipcally they use the traditional methods for building kayaks, which includes sizing your 'yak for your body. When specific plans are included (i.e. Morris' book) they are meant mainly to be a guide (some might say "crutch"). I highly recommend Morris' book, _Building Skin-on-Frame Boats_ and Putz's book _Wood and Canvas Kayak Building_.

In addition, the links below provide sources of plans for kayaks. Clark Craft is supposed to be a reputable dealer in plans and many people have built kayaks to the plans that they offer (which are Percy Blandford's designs) but are dated and do not push the envelope in performance. The second link has free plans for a few different kayak plans, not just SOF's. My dad and I built two according to the "Canvasback" plans back in '86, only we modified them to 14' long. The "King Canvasback" plans are similar to the "Canvasback" except that they were already stretched. Both plans were published by Mechanix Illustrated, the original "Canvasback" back in the '60's, the KC in the early '70's. If you go with the KC plans, I highly recommend using both plans, because I noticed that the original plans had a bit more info. that was left off of the KC plans.

In summary, if you just want a kayak, then the Clark Craft plans and the free plans will allow you to build a good kayak with decent performance. If you are looking for better performance than, say, a Folbot, you will want to build a kayak more along the lines of the Morris or possibly the Putz design. Morris' design probably leaves more tweaking possibilities and higher performance possibilities than Putz's design. But then, I base this on what I have been able to gather from builders of both types here and elsewhere and have not actually built a kayak using either of these designs or methods.

http://www.clarkcraft.com/

Paul

: After a google search for sof kayak plans, skip snaith is just about
: the only hit. Advice has been "just do it" and that sof building is
: more about
: technique than plans. Still, this would be my first boat. I am attracted to
: the
: sof for it's light weight and low expense. Already have a caribou/CD. Much of
: a novice in the sport. Paddling mostly in the ohio river and so far doing
: mostly
: point to point day trips. Water quality is not encouraging rolling, plus a
: few injuries on the mend before I get more aggressive. So the feather, being
: a badairka design with a longish water length got my attention. I hear
: that this is great site for boat building support..testing the waters
: first for any thoughts on this boat design being a good fit for my needs
: and novice status.