: Just my two cents! Good luck with your build, in any case!

Until just a couple days ago, I had totally forgotten there was the inflatable builders manual too. I thought the Sonnet 16/18 info under the folder main menu was all the information available and they were still works in progress. After re-discovering the yostwerks main page link to the inflatable manual, the Sonnets do look really interesting.

I have enough material on hand to build either at this time and have not started the build yet(getting my second garage in order) so I still have time to change my mind. However, my main concern is how well the Sonnets actually work. I had a rather poor experience in a low price, commercial pure inflatable a few weekends ago that leaves me smarting about building an inflatable rather than a more rigid one like the Sea Tour.

To describe my experience: A couple weekends ago, myself, a friend and one of his friends went to one of the local lakes. My friend and I had never been kayaking before and his friend is just a casual boater who takes his kayaks out when he camps at lakes. There was a steady 3-4 north wind. Me and the two guys I was with(in 8.5-9ft plastic kayaks) traveled north, against the wind down the length of the lake. I had to paddle a lot more than the other two but overall, it was pretty decent. We assumed going back the other way, with the wind, would be a lot easier for me not having the wind against me. Boy was I wrong, that thing just did not want to track with the wind at all. If I got up to any speed at all, it would want to turn. I think I spun out like eight 360s just trying to get that thing back to where we started. Once we made the turn for the ramp where we started and I was back into the wind a bit, it started tracking just fine again! I got to try out one of the plastic kayaks and it was, of course, immensely better and I was hooked(along with my friend) on getting a kayak. I would rather have a folding one because I do not want to buy a roof rack for my car at this time.

I guess my main concern about a Sonnet would be how rigid it is compared to the Sea Tour. Also, the Sea Tour feels like it would be something I can build since you build the frame and then skin it. Psychologically, with the Sea Tour once I have that frame built, all I have left to do is skin it. On the other hand, with a Sonnet, you do not really have anything boat-like until you finish the skin. I have to say, cutting and gluing the skin is the most intimidating part of this project to me and the Sonnet appears to be more technical from the start in that regard.