: A couple years back I built a Yost Nikumi with some slight
: modifications. I made several of the pieces slightly smaller
: than the design called for and made some other minor changes to
: the overall length and fitting but I really enjoyed the boat. I
: made a few posts here regarding my thoughts about it and now I'm
: back to say my modifications and the fact that I never sealed
: any of the wood conspired against me.

I think you're jumping to conclusions on what caused your failures. The most likely cause was reducing the size of some of the pieces. Like others have said, the Yost designs are very lightly built to begin with, particularly compared to historic SOF kayaks. The next most likely cause was probably poor material choice- using a less than prime species or cut of lumber. A flat-sawn board with grain runout of any species is apt to break more a lot more easily than straight-grained vertical grain stock. Sealing the wood can have its drawbacks as well, it's not a cure-all. A little more information might shed some light on the incident.

m