: Larry's guy Jason is like superman!
: I have to admit I knew nothing about tillers until a couple of days
: ago.

: I've got a mock up of the Mystery cockpit area, jury rigged some
: rails (router table channel anodized aluminum) and a roughed out
: foot brace.
: I get nice separation of my feet so I don't think I need to
: consider using a tiller.

: I've looked at pivoting seats. (I once thought I was going to
: 'invent' a moving seat for kayaks. duh. It's pretty obvious once
: one starts pumping one's legs.)
: Pivoting seats I've seen seem a bit high and costly. The height is
: probably not a problem in racing. If I was going to race any
: kayak, I'd pad my seat to sit as high as possible.
: But switching to a 20" wide boat after paddling a 23"
: wide Great Auk for five years (I could take a nap in the Great
: Auk), I should begin with a low-butt position and consider a
: higher position later.

: I like the discussion and all the information. By far my favorite
: way to procrastinate. (I think I'm nervous about spending $650
: on fiberglass and other materials.
: $200 worth of lumber, $100 to Nick, some plywood and glue were
: easy. The real commitments seem to be dropping the bigger nut on
: cloth and stripping the deck.

: I guess I'm going to have to decide what to make the foot brace out
: of. I'm thinking thin plywood, carbon fiber with some shallow
: ridges on the back for stiffness. Foam is probably the
: best, but I've got no experience. I do know about stiffness,
: coffers/blocking/ ridges/honeycomb......
: I'm also going to hang a Guzzler foot pump on the foot brace panel.
: It's big, and will be mounted on an angle so the INTAKE manifold
: is in the center on the bottom of the hull. I think this'll be
: the interesting part.

: The blocks to the rail I'll probably carve out of wood (thanks
: Larry), then glass, use a piece of polyethylene to run inside
: the rail channel. (Make it adjustable, and later take-apart-able
: when salt begins to corrode everything. Hinges for the rudders
: I'm still thinking about. Larry, how did you hinge your rudder
: peddles?
: Progress is slow . . . Procrastination mode.....

: I probably should have just bought an Epic 18.......

: Will

Hi Will,

If you're going direct from paddling and Auk to the Mystery, without paddling other tippy boats (skinny) I think I'd want to sit on the bottom until you get used to the boat. Three inch difference in width is huge. I've many times considered sending Nick the money for those plans too :) Around here it's fresh water only so salt corrosion isn't an issue, but I've sailed alot on saltwater so definately understand the problem. Fresh water rinse after use solve many issues there. Plywood glass or carbon covered makes an easy footbrace, at least it's flat to start with, working with foam is a little tricky at first (I'm playing with that now). I'll let Larry answer about his rudder pedals, his settup was nicely done :)

Oh yeah, later on the pivoting seat can be added, doesn't have to be as high as the racing versions, the idea is the pivot, not the height.

Bill H.