: I agree with your point. My friend built his own design, based on a greenland
: design that I think he was given by Peter Strand. So when he copied his
: own boat, he was not stealing from anyone. If I were ever going to use a
: designer's boat as a mold, I would try to contact them to pay some sort of
: royalty.

: Another question: how is it any different to take lines from a boat as
: outlined in a previous post? Its pretty much the same thing: borrowing
: from someone else's design process to get a step up in one's own. On the
: other hand, human beings have been standing on one another's shoulders for
: our entire existence when it comes to ingenuity. Should the designers of
: the Anas Akuta pay royalties into a fund for paddlers in greenland? One of
: the things I like about skin on frame building is that each boat is
: different in small ways from every other. So you are working in a
: tradition of design rather than stealing from others. Having said that, I
: support the right of folks like Nick and Jay and even the designers at
: commercial kayak companies to make a living.

: Best,
: James

There's a significant difference in starting with the lines from an existing kayak then modifing them to suit your needs/desires. Just taking the lines from an existing kayak for a direct copy is as you said, the same thing as flashing a mold (it's what it's called with professional boatbuilders when you make a direct copy from an existing boat, in fiberglass).

That said, kayak design is an evolutionary process, not many designs start fresh, most are based to some extent on what's been used before that the designer likes the modified to suit. That's usually what happens when one takes the lines off an existing kayak, unless it's a historical one like from one of the museums. It's fairly common for SOF copies to be built from lines taken from historical kayaks, hard to pay royalties to a designer that's been gone for hundreds of years

Bill H.