FreeB 14?

[chris]

I just bought Jeff's book: Fuselage Frame Boats: A guide to building skin kayaks and canoes.  It should arrive soon.  In the meantime I was planning which kayak I wanted to build first. I heard mention of the FreeB 12' and FreeB 14'.  The plans for the 14' don't seem to be available anywhere.  Is there a reason they seem to have disappeared?

 

Also, I'm a larger gentleman: 6'1" and 280lbs. Would I break the FreeB 12?  Any recommendations on the first kayak I should build?

[Abyssdncr]

Chris,

 

I'd nudge you toward the Mess About 15 or Castaway for stability and extra "cargo" carrying ability.  I did a FreeB 12 last year as my first boat, then built a couple-few more with Jeff's and another designer's plans.  First of all, FreeB is a great handling design & a bit simpler to build.  Plus bumping the material sizes up to the larger recommendations for strength is no big deal when you're lofting everything from scratch.  And...at 230 lbs dressed I still had the ability to throw a small child in my lap and paddle around a bit, but she was riding low in the water like that.  However...dude, the plans are worth the price just from the low-to-no-frustration frame of reference & peace of mind.  Everything just fits like a glove if you do your part.  Also, I've built from a couple different plans offerors and will continue to trumpet that Jeff's plans are excellent and totally speed up the build time.  

 

Of course, if you're the kind of guy that takes as much or more pride in doing it all from scratch, that's a moot point, but if you wanna get out and play for summer time, plans are the way to go. I think my two from plans were 2 months from plans to painted in the water, and my FreeB 12 was closer to 4 months and WAY over budget mostly due to finding good sources of timber and a few mistakes here & there.

 

Now, I'm onto a 16' solo canoe for even more cargo capability for river camping trips.  So, for testing the waters for construction style & reducing the "initial" investment, FreeB is great.  If you're looking for a boat that will best meet your needs, I'd definitely recommend going with something in the 15' or bigger (Vardo, perhaps?).

 

All that said - what are your primary priorities and objectives for the build?  That might call for a revised recommendation...

 

Cheers,

[chris]

Awesome! Thanks!  Jeff's book includes the offsets for the 15' Curlew.  Does that sound like a good starter kayak?

[Abyssdncr]

Chris,

 

I had to come home and check my copy of the book to confirm my suspicions.  22" wide sounds awfully tender for a "beginner" kayak.  I got into a couple 25" kevlar boats in 14', 15', and 17' over this last season and couldn't be nearly as sloppy as I can with my tupperware or FreeB.  Probably more depends on your intended adventures though, calm water protected lake vs. river/creek vs. open sea.  I have a Curlew design on my someday to-do list for something that I could explore learning to roll, knowing that some river trips would definitely tip me over occasionally with the current, but the tradeoff in stability for speed sounds fun.  My daughter slipped into the Tadpole (19" wide with a bit of rocker) with very little experience and it took 3 or 4 trips out before she could maintain the balance for full strength paddling, but now she's like a fish in it on the lake...but has no desire to use it on flowing water.  

 

For starting, I'd keep with the designs in the 25"-28" wide range and closer to 15+ ft. (Mess About, Castaway, Vardo) depending on just how open of a cockpit you'd like and whether the notion of fishing appeals to you.  Part of that is why I have 5+ boats for me with a 6th on the way.  My fishing tupperware gets the most action hands down, but it's boring tupperware.  My Wood Duck is awesome loaded for camping or tandem...as long as there are no rocks in the water and there are places for careful put-ins and take-outs.  But if you don't have hard obstacles to avoid, the skin boats fly and are half the weight of everything else and just so darned cool.  

 

He has lofts for the Mess About 12 in his second book too.  Also a good read.

 

So, back to you, what is your intended use?

[chris]

Thank you so much for all the help! I really appreciate it. I don't live anywhere near the ocean so definitely not sea. I'm currently planning for just lakes, I'd love to maybe fish or camp but I'm not sure.

[Kudzu]

There is myth that Width automatically means a boat is more stable and that is not an absolute truth.  All things being equal (and they never are) a wider boat would be more stable. But hull shape is the determining factor in stability. Of course width will limit how stable it can be. There is a great article about this on my web site that came about from a discussion we had on another forum that shows several versions of a 24" boat and now the stability varies from rock solid to  unstable.

 

http://www.kudzucraft.com/web/width-and-stability

 

I have put a few first time paddlers in a Curlew, haven't lost one yet.  My father in law didn't listen and did go for a swim but he got back in and we paddled for a couple of hours after that.

 

That said, a Curlew is less stable than the average beginner plastic kayak. A LOT less stable than say a Sit on Top, you can stand up in a lot of those. So it would be a bit scary at first but everyone I have taken out adapts very fast.  2-3 hours ad they are perfectly comfortable. Then you are rewarded with a much faster/easier to paddle/lower resistance boat while all the other are stuck in their plastic barges.

[chris]

Thanks Jeff! Love your book!