: Hello,

: I'm new to kayaking. I've spent some time on sit on tops, and some
: time in a very few sit in kayaks. The first kayak I sat in that
: made much sense to me was Nick Schade's Night Heron. I really
: like skinny boats. I'm not sure why. I'm told they're unstable.
: I was actually hesitant to get in one at first, thinking I'd
: immediately flip it or some other such nonsense, but when I was
: in it, it felt far more natural than wider, more
: "stable" boats did, as if it was part of my body, like
: a good sport bike, and it just moved and did exactly what I
: wanted it to do. I could drive my paddle down right next to me,
: and get a great push off, without having to edge very much, and
: when I did want to edge, it moved with me easily, not resisting
: like the more stable kayaks did. It made sense. Of course, it's
: also an expensive boat to build, incredibly time consuming, and
: I'm honestly afraid it might be beyond my skillset.

: Then I discovered Skin on Frame, and specifically, Yostwerks. These
: boats are beautiful, look simple enough to build, in theory (I
: just torched my first attempt, but I was also learning to use my
: new saw at the same point, and I've got enough plywood left over
: to start my next attempt without even buying another sheet :) )

: However, I've been reading a fair bit about the virtues of short
: boats. As I am not a very athletic paddler, and am more than
: happy bumping along at 3-4 kts, if that much, I'd pondered
: trying to put together a boat that's both short (<15
: feet) and narrow (<20 inches) I've noticed that there are
: a number of long, skinny boats, and a number of short, fat
: boats, but few short skinny boats.

: I only weigh about 150 sopping wet, and I'm 5"10", so
: getting enough buoyancy and displacement shouldn't be a problem.
: I'm half tempted to try either shortening a Sea Rider, or
: perhaps trying to narrow up a Sea Tour 15R.

: I'm a little hesitant to start mucking with other peoples designs
: before building my first boat, but I've talked to a number of
: people that say this is pretty much par for the course, and how
: people arrive at the boat that's best for them (after no small
: amount of experimenting) Is this a good idea? Is this a stupid
: idea? Any advice for determining how to go about doing this the
: intelligent way?

: Thanks. :)

: -- James

I completed a 15ft 6" Guillemot last year and it turned out to be realy great. Reduce the length by starting with a standard spacing in the centre and progressively reducing each successive space by 1/4". this on a 17ft boat works out to about 15ft 6" depending how much you need to alter the end forms to give a fair profile. This means that you retain the original design frames and hence pretty well all of the stability and bouyancy of the original design. If you can't face strip building , I'm sure it will work just as well for SOF or stitch and glue constructions.
Les C.