: Smart idea Bill. My poor kayak has had so many innovations and changes it
: looks like a porcupine.

: Bill, you are contributing to my education.

: "A bateau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used
: extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in
: the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a
: wide variety of sizes. The name derives from the French word, bateau,
: which is simply the word for boat and the plural, bateaux, follows the
: French, an unusual construction for an English plural. In the southern
: United States, the term is still used to refer to flat bottomed boats,
: including those elsewhere called jon boats."

: John

Hi John,

LOL...well I confess, years back I hosted the Sailing Forum on AOL and for a number of years hosted a nautical trivia chat. So I've got tons of useless knowledge .

Actually am planning on a slab sided bateau, that I can glue on pieces of building insulation and carve hull shapes to try them cheaply. Also lets me try different amas (floats) and akas (cross beams) designs.

I'm planning on using a dagger board thru the aft deck behind the cockpit, where a day hatch would be, it's somewhat more efficient than a leeboard and a blank can be installed if not sailing it to minimize drag. This does mean the center of effort of the sail needs to be much further aft than it would normally be, but I've been playing with that placement for a couple years on other designs. So it's a good idea to do alot of testing first. The bateau will be cheap exterior plywood, when I'm done with it it'll just go in the trash

Bill H.