DURRETTD

I understand that many builders dislike using epoxy, but two coats of epoxy will eliminate the rot issue with poplar. It's readily available, cheap, and easy to work with - aside from the application of epoxy. Once I screw up my courage to mix the epoxy I also coat my plywood and laminate my cockpit coaming with epoxy. Maybe Dave Finnegan has the best approach: the boats have plenty of time to dry, so just use what's available and oil the wood.

I did a little arithmetic and found that a bundle of pool noodles displaces about 77% of the water in a compartment filled with them. Ping pong balls displace about 53% of the water in a compartment filled with them. I'm not an arithmetologist, so please check and correct me if I've missed something here. The point is that when you lay cylinders along side one another, there's a lot of space in the "corners" around them. Pool noodles also have a hole down the middle that will hold water. A bundle of spheres has even more volume in the "corners" which can hold water. Float bags kinda-sorta flex around the frames and stringers to fill more of the volume inside the boat than is possible with the more rigid pool noodles or ping pong balls. I don't know how many ping pong balls it takes to fill the bow or stern of a kayak, but I doubt they would less than the cost of building a float bag, and you'd still have to do a bit of work to contain them. Pool noodles would also take some work and would certainly not be free.

Many years ago I thought I needed a rudder for turning, then I learned to lean and adjust my paddling angle/force. Eventually I realized a rudder is most useful to maintain a straight course, but is subject to over-correction/under-correction and general human imprecision. A few years ago I modified my rudder so that it's controlled by lines led from an extended arm across the rudder head to jam cleats on each side of the deck forward of the cockpit. The rudder became an adjustable skeg. It wouldn't necessarily be easy to attach a rudder to a SOF, but it should be easier than building a durable, water-tight skeg box. Has anyone tried attaching a rudder to a SOF? How'd you do it? Any suggestions?

Yep, half-skinned is way better than vinyl covered.

Unless a SOF is full of water, it is light enough to lift, so it doesn't have to be dragged as much and get as banged up as a heavier polyethylene boat.

I've read it makes your boat into a greenhouse and is very easy to puncture. It might make a good demo boat for Jeff.

Sounds like a bargain to me!

I wanted a partial plywood deck on my first SOF, so I wrapped the hull skin around the bottom off-center (the cut-off was plenty to cover the deck). I then pulled it very tight and stapled it to the inside of the gunwale every couple of inches alternating sides and working from the center toward the ends. Once the hull skin was stretched and fastened, I cut the excess fabric and rolled the remaining one or two inches into a sorta' neat roll then re-stapled every inch. I skinned the deck ends by wrapping the fabric over the outside of the gunwales and stapling-cutting-rolling-stapling the same as the hull skin. The advantage is that skinning was a three-four hour job and the skin was so tight it took very little shrinking. Use stainless staples in a power stapler and go over them with a hammer to ensure they're fully set.

I used a variation on Jeff's canoe-skinning technique to skin a YostWerks Sea Ranger kayak. The skinning process took a total of about six hours, including a trip to Lowes for more stainless staples - the process used about 1,500 stainless steel staples. I clamped the fabric off-center, allowing 5 - 6 inches of excess fabric on the short side. The excess from skinning the hull covered the deck. This would not necessarily work for a wider boat - the Sea Ranger has a 20.25" beam and low gunwales. With the hull up-right, I worked from the center to ends, lifting the boat with the skin and pulling firmly from the center toward each end and clamping the cloth to the gunwales. Twenty clamps were not excessive. Once the clamps were in place, I went back and re-tensioned/re-clamped until the skin was smooth. I wrapped the hull fabric over the top of the gunwale and stapled it inside the gunwale about every 2 - 3 inches, then cut it about 1 inch inside the line of staples. Once the hull fabric was trimmed, I started from one end rolling the excess fabric into a semi-neat roll and stapling again every inch all the way around the boat. For the deck, I draped the cut off section of the polyester left over from the hull over the deck, stapling from the center toward the front then back and tensioning it firmly on the outside of the gunwale on one side. Pulled it firmly across the the deck and stapled the other side. Cut the fabric about 1 inch outside the line of staples - BEING CAREFUL TO KEEP THE HOT SOLDERING IRON AWAY FROM THE HULL SKIN! I started at one end and rolled the excess fabric into a more-or-less neat roll and stapled again about every inch. A power stapler is probably necessary. I used an electric one and finished the hull and deck skinning in 4 - 6 hours. The electric stapler did not drive all the staples flush; a hammer solved the problem. My hands were not sore. The fabric smoothed out nicely and required very little ironing. After painting, I stapled 2-inch polyethylene fabric strapping around the gunwale, overlapping about 1/2 inch on the top of the deck, 1 1/2 inches down the side. The tape covers the seam and provides abrasion resistance for the deck edge; it's cheap, easy and effective.

If you're going to staple the skin, leave it stapled. After reading Jeff's description of building Stonefly (a canoe), I devised a scheme to staple the skin on a Yost-designed Sea Ranger with a line of staples down the center-line of the deck. I foresaw problems getting the skin tight enough because I would be working from the center toward each end and I would have had to reach under the already-tightened skin to pull the next increment of fabric tight. I just didn't have enough hands. In the end, I used separate hull and deck coverings, both stapled to the gunwale. For the hull, I wrapped the polyester around the gunwale, pulled it tight, and fastened it to the inside of the gunwale with staples every couple of inches, then cut the fabric about an inch or two beyond the staples, rolled it into a (not very) neat roll and stapled it every half-inch over the top of the first row of staples. I pulled the deck fabric over the gunwale and fastened it the same way on the outside of the gunwale. By working from the center toward each end I was able to get the skin very smooth. It took very little ironing. The Sea Ranger has long overhangs fore and aft; a boat with more vertical stem and stern probably would not pull smoothly and would have to be sewn, stapled - or better yet glued - along the bow and stern. Once the boat was painted I covered the outer 1/2 inch of the deck and the exposed staples on the outside of the gunwale with 2-inch wide polypropylene webbing. It looks better (to me) than having a seam down the middle of the deck - and I didn't have to sew anything. Hate sewing! I believe it was faster and easier than sewing would have been. It took about three hours to skin the boat using an electric stapler. If anyone wants to try this, be prepared to go back over your staples with a hammer - the electric stapler did not fully seat about 10% of the staples. If you plan to use a manual stapler, call your orthopedic guy and make an appointment in advance.

Jeff sells proven fabrics at a very good price. Check http://www.kudzucraft.com/store/viewcategory.php?groupid=18

Sea Kayaker magazine runs safety articles in every issue and is worth the subscription price, even if that's all you read, and even if you aren't out in the open ocean. Some time in the last year or two they ran an article on using a paddle float/heel-hook re-entry. I've practiced it a few times and it works very well. The biggest advantage over the cowboy re-entry is that it keeps your center of gravity low. 1. Make or buy a paddle float. Mine is a 1/2 inch thick dense foam sleeping pad rolled around a paddle blade and tied in place through two holes at the outboard end of the roll. It lives on my spare paddle. It doesn't provide as much buoyancy as an inflatable, but it doesn't have to be blown up. 2. Store the float under bungee cords on the deck. 3. In use, the end of the paddle opposite the float wedges under very tight bungees or low-stretch nylon lines behind the cockpit at a 90 degree angle to the long axis of the boat. 4. To re-enter: Float along-side the boat with your feet toward the bow and your back against the paddle shaft. Drape the arm against the boat over the back deck and grip the far-back edge of the cockpit rim (aren't you glad you built a nice, smooth cockpit rim?). The arm away from the boat can drape over the outboard portion of the paddle shaft while you enjoy the nice warm water. 5. Lift the leg on the side away from the boat over the leg nearest the boat and hook the heel over the cockpit rim. Yes, you use the outside leg, over the top of the inside leg to grab the cockpit. Remember to wear booties. 6. Reach across your body with the outside arm and grab the near side of the cockpit rim. 7. Using the outside heel and the outside arm to hold onto the cockpit and the inside arm to hold onto the back deck/aft edge of the cockpit, rotate your body into the cockpit. Keep your body more-or-less straight. At 90 degrees of rotation your inside leg will be down beside the boat. You will be facing across the boat, looking away from the paddle float. 8. Continue rotating. At 180 degrees of rotation your belly will be above the near edge of the cockpit, the (formerly) inside leg will be parallel to the boat outside the cockpit, and your inside arm will be under you. 9. Continue rotating and begin to slide your feet under the forward deck. 10. At 360 degrees of rotation you will be facing up, mostly inside the boat and laying back on the aft deck. Your butt is not yet lowered into the seat. Do not sit up yet! The 360 degree rotation can be slightly disorienting, so give yourself time to ensure you know which way is up. 11. Before you sit up, grip your primary paddle, get it extended out to the side to brace, and sit up slowly, dropping your butt into the seat. 12. Pump out the boat and re-attach the skirt. 13. Re-stow the spare paddle and float. This seems pretty obvious, but I forgot once. I typically get some bruises from this, but it doesn't take a lot of strength or a lot of practice. It does require some attention to weight distribution; try to keep your weight distributed slightly toward the paddle float. With my low-volume float it may be possible to sink it if I don't stay right against the boat. Any excessive shift of weight toward the side opposite the float can dump you back in the water. It works better for me than the cowboy. It's a lot easier to do the heel-hook re-entry than it is to describe it, and a lot faster. There are also lots of other solo re-entry techniques and it's worth googleing "kayak reentry".

I learned long ago that it's important to paddle in a kneeling position. It said that quite clearly in the scouting books. Then I learned how uncomfortable kneeling can be, so I sat on a pad in the bottom of the boat. My center of gravity was low and I could stroke close to the gunwale, lean as needed, and feel secure. I got pretty good with a variety of strokes and could paddle in any direction I wanted without changing sides. Then I got tendinitis in my left elbow, so I switched to a double paddle. Now I paddle an ancient Mohawk Pack canoe with a double paddle while sitting on the bottom using the thwart as a back rest. It isn't classically correct, but it's very effective and very comfortable. Your mileage may vary. Experiment.

I used 19 feet of polyester cloth for a 17.5' Sea Ranger LC. I probably could have gotten away with less, but Yost's designs can vary a bit in length depending on how you interpret and execute the bow and stern. The cloth is way too inexpensive to take a chance on buying less than the anticipated boat length plus 1.5 feet.

On the subject of paint: I've used only Rustolium and have been delighted with it. Haven't tried any other coatings because the Rustolium was cheap and readily available. I used two coats thinned 20% followed by two coats unthinned. Not trying to be creative, I just mixed more of the thinned paint than I needed, so I used it up. I performed an accidental experiment on Rustolium: As I was applying the last coat in the Fall, I dripped a small blob of paint on my right big toenail, down near the quick. It didn't wash off when I showered a few hours later, so I decided to see how long it would last. I'm now trimming the edges of that drop and it appears to be as thick as it was several months ago. So, although it's not a scientific experiment, I'm impressed with the durability of Rustolium. There may be other coatings as good or better, but dang! That's some pretty good stuff! Dan

Check the discussion of boat selection at this link: http://messing-about.com/forums/topic/8419-cant-make-up-my-mind/.

Jeff mentioned that he was concerned that a fine bow would bury when running down the face of a wave. Yep! A fine bow will bury if you run straight down the face., And because the water in the trough of a wave is moving away from the direction the wave is moving, while the top of the wave is moving in the direction of wave movement, the stern can tip forward over your head. You end up upside down - vigorously! One solution is to paddle a stubby boat. A better solution is to paddle a sleek boat, but run down the wave face at an angle. I've had my SOF out in Choctawhatchee Bay (Northwest, FL) in some pretty enthusiastic winds. No problems. If the conditions are too rough for my SOF, they're too rough for any of my polyethylene boats, including a stubby sit-on-top. If the first boats you build aren't perfect for you or your wife, you can build two more and still spend less than for one commercial boat.

For info on YostWorks boats, go to http://yostwerks.com/index.html. For a photo of the Sea Bee go to http://yostwerks.com/SeaBeeSkinB.html The photos of YostWerks' PVC-skinned boats show wrinkles, so I used Jeff's polyester cloth and Rustolium to build a YostWerks Sea Ranger. The PVC cloth appears to be "Naugahide". Save the Naugas; use polyester.

The Baidarka bow looks exotic and interesting and I'm sure the Aleuts developed it for a good reason. Does anyone have a clue what that reason was?

I wish I had known years ago how simple and inexpensive SOFs are to build. As Woodman said, you can experiment with designs without going broke. I had wanted to try a very narrow boat, but didn't want to spend two or three thousand dollars to buy one (I know most dealers offer demos. but it takes several days of paddling to really get to know a boat). My first SOF was a 20 inch x 17.5 foot experiment. Glad I didn't spend much on it, but It's fun for an occasional outing. My next one will be your Curlew because I'm interested in a boat with low wetted surface for casual cruising. Then there'll be a rowing boat and maybe a double It would also have been good to know that building SOFs creates a kayak storage problem.

Here's another indispensable safety feature for every kayak.

I agree there's a lot to be said for painting a boat the color you want; but, if you think you may some day put your boat into water with power boats be sure it's highly visible! I live in a tourist area (Northwest Florida) and I don't trust once-a-year boaters to remember there are others on the water. I've painted my first SOF Safety Yellow (rustolium) and I paint my paddle blades fluorescent green. So far I've not been run down. Whether or not the bright paint has helped is difficult to prove. For me, it's preferable to learn to like a bright or even gaudy paint job and slightly reduce the risk of being run down. On the subject of paint: Rustoleum is great! It's easy to find, easy to use, and tough. Dan

I've been toying with the idea of building a sit-on-top/surfski SOF. As step one of the process, I built a SOF with a thin plywood skin from the front of the cockpit to aft of a hatch behind the cockpit. The ply made mounting the hatch and cockpit rim simple. It also provides a rigid surface for supporting the boat on roof racks. I stapled the skin in place around the area to be covered by the ply - wrapped around the inside of the gunwales and the frames - then mounted the ply with screws and caulking after painting the skin. The challenge appears to be getting a self-draining cockpit attached to the frame. It should be doable using 1/4 inch (or thinner) plywood stitched together and glassed. Could you lay up a glass cockpit using a sit-on-top kayak as a female mold? The drains would have to be attached at the low point of the cockpit and run through flex tubing to through-hulls. Could you glue small plywood pads to the skin to accept the through-hulls? Would the weight of the cockpit make the boat unacceptably heavy? Wound the height of the cockpit required to make it self draining and the height required to provide clearance between the drains and the skin make the boat unacceptably tender? One of Jeff's longer designs should make a good starting point for the hull. Any ideas, suggestions, or experience to support taking this to the next step? Dan

I agree with FloatingBear. Epoxy is messy and expensive, but it seals the plywood. I coated my plywood frames and my stringers with epoxy, then epoxied and screwed the stringers to the frames. The frame is very stiff, which may or may not be a good thing; I prefer the stiff frame and decided to go with epoxy and screws largely for that reason. I also used 3/4 inch ply for my frames to reduce the chance of splitting. The epoxy and the thicker ply certainly added to the weight, but after lifting a polyethylene boat for 25 years, my over-built skin-on-frame feels light. Dan

The rigid plastic seat of my ancient Hydra Solo became increasingly uncomfortable over the last couple of years, so I removed the seat and the aluminum stiffening tube that ran down the middle of the cockpit. The first replacement seat was one I borrowed from my Hobie Adventure Island. It was luxuriously comfortable, but the back stuck up so far that it was a major battle to get the spray skirt on. For the next version I replaced the seat with a piece of 1/2 inch foam cut from a cheap sleeping pad (Wlamart). The lower seating position made the boat even more stable and more comfortable. One of the greatest improvements was that the back band rested higher on my back. It wasn't quite as comfortable as the Hobie seat, but on balance it's better than either the original hard plastic seat or the Hobie seat. On my first SOF I glued foam to the floor and the rear of the cockpit coaming. The combination has worked well. The height of the backrest is about right, there's no back band flopping forward in the way when I enter the cockpit, and my center of gravity is about as low as possible. A final luxury was a foam pad on each foot rest. Dan