: If you'll remember last fall, my soon-to-be 5 year old daughter
: needed a new kayak. She outgrew the performance of her old
: "Sharkbait" 8-footer. So I gave her four different
: designs to choose from: an East Greenlander, an Aleutian, a
: "modern" plumb nose design and the SEA-12 (the 15 is
: our British inspired, swede-form, rough water boat). She picked
: the SEA-12 and I built it over the winter. She named it
: "The Pink Jaguar." Weather prolonged the launching
: date but she finally paddled her new kayak last weekend... with
: her new pink CF GP of course.

: It's a fuselage-style skin-on-frame that's 12 feet long and 16
: inches wide. I skinned it using Bill Hamm's method with a twist
: or two: The hull is skinned with Dacron and 3.2 oz fiberglass
: covered with 3 layers of white graphite. The deck is Dacron
: laminated with Wally-world cotton/polyester and a few coats of
: Epifanes Rapidclear varnish. She picked the fabric for the deck
: all by herself. The coaming is wood-stripped out of basswood and
: walnut, fiberglassed and is actually recessed like on the strip
: version. The recess is more apparent from other angles.

: She was really cautious getting in it initially but soon settled
: right in. Her balance was amazing. We paddled about a 1/2 mile
: to a beach. She couldn't paddle the entire distance herself so
: Mom gave her a tow (I was towing my 3 year old in her "Pink
: Pearl."). The wind picked up at one point and kicked up
: some 6" waves which she handled with aplomb. People at the
: pond kept asking if was a fiberglass boat. Well... kinda! Also,
: with nothing around it for scale, it looks like an adult could
: jump right in the cockpit. It was fun taking it out.

: I sized it so she should be able use her "Pink Jaguar"
: for at least 5 or 6 years.

: Lena was amazing and made me really proud. :D

Btw, on the SeaTour 17 I'm helping a friend build we doubled the 3.2 ounce glass on the bottom, makes it really tough. There seems to be a bunch of things one can do with this method :)

Bill H.