: Today I cut out and set up the forms for the sea flea 11 I am
: building. After getting them all cut out and set up, spaced and
: leveled (I decided to bolt on all four forms at there
: appropriate heights), I took a look at what I had done and
: thought to myself the space between forms two and three looks
: kind of small but they are the right distance. I cut out the
: inside of the forms leaving 1.5 inches all the way around. Is
: this the right measure because it looks kind of tight to get
: your legs through. The cutout in form 2 is 5 inches from top to
: bottom witch leaves 1 inch up from the top of the keel stringer
: and 1.5 down from the top of the form. I think I did it right
: but maybe I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the
: fact that the boat is for a five year old and everything appears
: smaller.

: Anyone have any thoughts?

: Dave g

Dave,

PLEASE make sure that your 5 year old can exit smoothly. I built one of these several years ago and my boys enjoyed it. We took it out on the lake a few times and had a great time. Then in the afternoon, coming back in from the 'deep water' (chest deep on Dad) he got sideways in the surf line, got rolled, and his feet got caught inside. He was upside down in the water, couldn't push off the bottom, had no idea what a roll was, and couldn't get out of ht eboat. I was standing very near and righted him but he was completely freaked out and it was several years before I got him into a kayak again.

Turns out that he had worn snadles to the beach and into the boat. They got caught on the frames your working on. Ever since then we paddle skin-on-frame boats barefoot or with neoprene booties only. I've also added spacers between the frames to raise the effective floor level and smooth out the bottom of the kayak so there's less chance of entanglement.

With all that said, these are great boats to build, have fun.

Jim