: A friend of mine sent me this drawing of a kayak he has been working on in
: CAD. He intends to build it in traditional skin-on-frame. The inspiration
: for the design came from a number of the drawings in Harvery Golden's
: book, "Kayaks of Greenland".

A little more information would be helpful. What is the length, beam, and depth? What is the intended usage? Pond roller, flat water paddling, rough water play, other?

As others have said, a D shaped coaming looks like a bad idea, but I have never tried one. My personal preference is for more rocker and a shallow V at the keel.

With a bottom that flat, he will be sitting directly on the keelson, which will require more padding in the seat, resulting in a slightly higher CG. Use as low a keelson as possible. The skin will never be tight on the keelson, which may allow some debris trapping. I’ve built 2 SOFs with very flat bottoms so this comes from experience.

Ralph