: Swensons site has numerous kayaks that are old fashioned
: ply-on-frame which is just what you described. Why go there?

They have been around a while and they still work. The ply-onframe idea is fast to build and can be considerably less expensive to build.

: There are many thousands of S&G kayks made from 4mm ply with
: no internal structure except shearclamps and bulkheads. If
: you're going to go to the trouble to dig up decent plywood why
: use it on some kind of home-brew design?

If you use the marine plywood you can save the cost of resin for encapsulating ordinary plywood. That can speed up your construction, too.

Actually I didn't recommend any homebrew designs, but I might have. While there are many fine stitch and glue designs on the market, there are proably 10 times as many older designs which are still perfectly usable. When it comes to making a boat for an 8-year-old boy, there was a thread a few months ago on potential S&G designs, and the results were pretty slim. I think there were only 4 or 5 designs which people on this board had built. By comparison, the smaller, older, SOF designs have been built by quite a few. As for newer SOF designs, Tom Yost's Sea Pup was also mentioned.

I don't know if the original poster has selected a design yet, or not.

thanks for raising these points.

PGJ

BTW: If the Schade brothers drew up their boat designs at home, would a Guillemot, Great Auk, or Night Heron be a home-brew design? If so, I'll have a six-pack. :)