: 30 lbs for a 17.5' Baidarka with 6 chines, and a more complex bow and stern,
: is quite light. Mine weighs 32 lbs and was build to the design specs. My
: wood frame Sea Rider (Greenland) is about 24 lbs due to single chines and
: simpler stems.

: If you want lighter still, build a Sonnet 16. Mine tops out at 19lbs and if I
: used wood vs aluminum stringers it would be even lighter.

: The Sonnet also has the added advantage of fitting in a bag for travel to any
: paddling destination on the planet. Below is a link to the lovely Sonnet
: built
: by Thomas Ziegler of Germany. He can attest to it's performance.

: Tom
Tom,

I didn't actually build to the full 17' length. I believe mine is just a shade over 16 feet since I didn't feel like taking the time to scarf extra length into the chines and keel. I haven't actually measured it, but it's roughly 16 1/2 feet total length, I believe. I also didn't make the bow stem as light as I wanted because I made it a bit longer than I realized and couldn't mod it after I installed and skinned it. I did some minor mods to it and then reskinned the bow, but didn't get as much weight cut out as I wanted to.

Overall I like the design but still prefer the extra foot room that a traditional design with steam bent ribs gives me. I had to go back in and trim station 3 and 4 significantly to be able to get my size 12-13 feet in easily. Definitely can't beat a 20 hour build time though and, like I said, she paddles great. Thanks for sharing your designs with the rest of us.

FrankP