Hey forum,

I've been lurking on here for a while now, researching SOF kayaks. Honestly, I haven't so much as set a foot in a kayak yet, but from what I've seen and heard, I'll enjoy them. It's another excuse to do something fun while the wife thinks I'm exercising *grin*. I'm not keen on simply buying a rigid plastic kayak, either, for a variety of reasons. The foremost is simply that I enjoy and take pride in building. My other hobby is building and flying (oh, and repairing) radio controlled model aircraft.

From what I've read, Tom Yost's Sea Tour 15 EXP looks like it'll match my expectations pretty well. Correct me if I'm wrong (please), but it should be fairly stable for a guy with no kayak experience, plenty of extra capacity (I'm 5'11 & ~170 lbs), and still give reasonable performance & maneuverability. A good general purpose design with room for me to grow into. The Sea Bee 13' was another thought, primarily due to its apparent reputation of having great stability, but I bet I'll be happier with the extra capacity of the Sea Tour 15 EXP. I do plan on attending the general kayak instruction, along with safety courses. Being in the Capital District of New York gives me a few options in that department, so I'm thinking I should be able to find an instructor familiar with SOF kayaks.

I gotta get it built first, though. My first challenge appears to be material selection... the big box stores in the area don't appear to cater to the boat building crowd, as they don't carry marine plywood. There are some local companies that appear to cater to contractors directly, as their web site indicates they only sell in lots (since I'm not building a house or mass producing kayaks, that's not going to work). Short of calling a few contractors to see if they're willing to sell scrap or excess building supplies, I might have to do a bit of compromising and/or putting extra effort in to get what I want. From what I've seen, I can pick up exterior grade plywood for the formers/cross sections at Lowe's: untreated pine, B/C grade. A 15/32" thick, 2' x 4' section runs ~$10. The plans call for 1/2", but I think the missing 1/32" isn't going to be critical (am I wrong?). Since it's B/C grade, I'll probably end up picking through their selection. All I've got to do is find plywood that's good along the form of the former itself, and hope there's no interior voids, right?

As for the stringers, gunwales, and keel... my local Lowe's does carry WRC: 1x6x12 for ~$12.50. I'll need to scarf join each member, but I don't think I'm going to run into 16' WRC locally. The ~23' scarfed members (allowing for a 1 foot scarf joint overlap) should give me plenty of extra length to play around with, along with plenty of scrap.

I'm fairly lucky in the tool range... my parents used to run a portable saw mill business, so I've got access to quite the range of power tools. Circular saw, miter saw & stand (if I remember correctly), jig saw, table saw, drill press, even a planer. Cutting the formers out precisely shouldn't be a problem, nor ripping the WRC or planing it to the recommended size. I've never used a scarf joint before, but it doesn't look too bad... as long as I'm correct in remembering the miter saw & stand. I might need a bunch of hefty clamps, as my model airplane clamps aren't going to cut it *grin*.

Am I headed in the right direction? I'm more than open to advice and suggestions.

- Noel