I built the F1 from Brian's drawings and so have several others. Yeah ... there are a couple of tricky parts but no more tricky than building any other design. It's a nifty boat! To answer your questions.

Scaling: Blow up the drawings ... I scaled mine up to about 3 feet ... but don't blow the drawing up so big that the lines become jaggy. Don't use the vernier to scale from. Make a separate scale for each view ... this will lessen chasing down minor discrepancies between the three views.

Chines: Bending the chines on the F1 can take a bit of effort but it's gonna depend on which version of the F1 you build (wide or skinny) and your wood. I used 3/4 pine for my chines and gunwales ... and getting the chines right in the stern took some effort due to the stiffness of the wood but ya just fiddle with it until it's right. No gunwale distortion on mine.

Ribs: The ribs depend on your wood and your technique ... there is a learning curve. I used KD red oak ... soaked ... steam bent fine. I'd recommend you contact Brian for his rib rule. Otherwise you're gonna have to eyeball the hull shape by using romex or something else to approximate some of the ribs so that you can get an idea of the right shape and length. A better way is to create some plywood templates of the cross section at 3 or 4 locations which show the chine and keel locations. Go here to see the process https://sites.google.com/site/stejdor/brianshultzf1sof ... courtesy of Steve Dorrington.

Skinning: Skinning is a LOT easier than ya think.

Info: Lots of people have built the F1 ... there's a lot of building info out there and a lot of pics of the process.

KenB

I will be building one of Brian Schulz's F1 kayaks and would like to know whether anyone in this forum has any experience building from his drawings. They seem simple enough for scaling, but what I am concerned with is whether there are any tricky elements with the technique. In other words:

Do the chines require an amount of bending that the gunwales get distorted?
Are the ribs difficult to bend into the correct shape?
How can I ensure correct hull shape while bending ribs?
Is the skinning process particularly tricky with this design?

An input will be gratefully accepted and all advice welcome.

Thanks,

Stephe