: Hey Rob -
: I know I suggested 'Phoenix' as a name but I'm thinking 'Frankenyak', as you
: dubbed it, has a certain ring to it. How did you get the shapes for the
: hull and deck panels you replaced? Did Donnie lend you some patterns or
: did you just make em up?

: I did a bunch of staining, gluing, sanding, and coating this weekend. I'm
: getting impatient for something around here to start looking like a boat.
: By the book, I'll be stitching the seat together next. Sigh.

For the deck panels Donnie let me trace the shapes in his shop. For the deck sections I recycled a large piece of the old deck and used the lines from it as a guide to make the patches. Because the cockpit openning is a foot longer than it used to be, I didn't need to follow the original deck lines much so the patches were easy to cut and shape. Donnie gave me the coaming pieces from his Duet hybrid kayak to use as a guide for designing the longer openning on the rebuild so I was able to use these to trace out the new openning and get it cut reasonably well. This weekend I am glassing the deck (fairing it during the week) with 6-oz. glass so by Sunday evening it should be looking nice and kayaky. I glued the pieces of the original seat together today and will be working to fair it out as the week goes. The seat will be reglassed on the weekend. If all goes well I should have the riser and coaming installed by the end of next week and she'll be ready for her maiden voyage. Who says you can't regain virginity. All you gotta to is wreck the old girl an dput her back together again.

I'm pretty excited for the launch. This launch will be the accumulation of a heck of a pile of thinking and trial-by-error work. If it handles well then everyone will know what is possible when the possible looks impossible.

I won't have the deck hardware or final graphics in place by that time. The important thing is to get it out there and learn how it's going to work. Heck, I won't even have a spray skirt ready by then because I have to custom make one to fit the new openning.

Robert N Pruden