: 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

I like the design, should work great for you.

Most big box lumber yards, Lowes too, will custom order marine plywood, if you're not in a hurry they'll just add it to a shipment coming to them already so shipping isn't expensive. It though is often easier to deal with smaller yards that deal with contractors, they'll usually do the same deal and often their supply of lumber is better too. Might just use white pine (or more commonly now days, western pine) for the stringers, it works fine for these boats and is quite a bit less money and overall stronger and not much heavier.

You can certainly build using A/C pine plywood, the downside is modern plywood is really crap and it's full of voids. You'll often have to make a second frame for a couple places as the first one will just fall apart and the edges will need to be filled and sealed in epoxy to keep them from falling apart when they get wet even on the frames that don't fall apart. Kinda makes the price of marine plywood cheaper. Sometimes you can get fir marine plywood, 1/2" for a reasonable price, have to ask around. I've been buiding all of mine from an old stock of fir marine ply, not as pretty nor as light as okoume but can be easily 1/2 the price or less.

Bill H.

Bill H.