Ward

Jeff- Thought you and anyone else close by might be interested in this. The Georgia Rivers Network has done a great deal for paddling in Georgia. http://www.garivers.org/news/393-wfr-call-for-proposals.html

Just returned from three months in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. Castaway was covered in polyester/dacron in whatever weight Jeff shipped me. I stumbled on some 1/2" screen door plastic trim at the Home Depot which I used as rub rail on the bow. Now that I'm home will add it to the stern. Lakes up there had lots of stiff plants sticks and other things that made me a bit nervous going out in a skin boat. Often launched on rocky bottom and because of Castaway beam can't straddle to get in the kayak so had a number of scrapes on the bottom. Dropped the boat twice putting it back on the car. I truly mistreated this kayak and the worst I could show for it was a bit of seepage of about a cup and a half after 4 hours of paddling. I repainted the bottom, Rustoleum, after 2 months which was purely for piece of mind. The seepage I had was easily cleared with a sponge. I am convinced that these boats can take a real beating and am comfortable with going just about anywhere with the polyester skin. One other little note. The Castaway was washed with a auto wash and wax product. Love this boat!

Jeff, what is the size of the thread? The stuff I used had something like a 65 pound rating and it seemed a bit on the heavy side.

I used Baltic Birch and after finishing Castaway was talking to a salesman in a local (very small town) lumberyard and he said that he would be glad to special order some BS1088 for me. He called for a price and delivery and the price was less than the Baltic Birch when considering the square footage. Delivery was three days with other lumber materials from the same supplier. Jeff you may be interested in the latest interest in Castaway. A couple of duck hunters stopped and chatted the other day and wanted to know if I thought my kayak was stable enough to hunt ducks. The lakes are low here in Minnesota and the hunters are apparently having a hard time getting around. Might be some camo Castaways in the future.

Love the paddle float. The one I have is international orange which makes it a great thing to wave at an approaching power boat. Due to my old aching joints, the paddle float is also a nice assist getting in or out when things aren't moving so well. They also would make great rescue throws.

Skinny Mini jumped into my pointy little head but I really like Paul's "Kidzu". Sorry, I closed my facebook account because of their data mining sharing policy.

Jeff, what do you think the minimum weight will be? Promised grandson that we would build kayak this summer.

I agree. It seems there is a real need for a small 10 -12 ft boat for pre-teens.

You guys are making me smarter by the day. I think that I was too caught up in the building and enjoying process rather than thinking through a kayak identification step. Wonder how a Kudzu Team logo would do deccopauged (sp) on the bow. Hmm.. something to work on this winter. Paul, did you carve the "Curlew" design?

Nothing like finding a tool you have been searching for and have a real use for. This should make for some neat looking finish work.

Woodman, I would like to see your design on the front of the "Built by me" tee shirt that Jeff sells. Dan, I was just checking to see if you were paying attention and if the folks in RI still have a sense of humor. I do love Jeff's boats!

Well, here we go again. Kudzu is a vine brought to this country as animal feed because it is very high in protein. In parts of the South it has gone totally wild and has grown over trees, buildings and abandoned cars. However, some enterprising Southerners have come up with some very good use for parts of the plant. The flowers are used to make a very good jelly which tastes very much like grape jelly and the roots are used as a thickening for gravies, stews and sauces. Dried vines are used to make wreaths which I'm told are sold for obscene prices in places like New York and Rhode Island. Hopefully, Jeff's kayaks will spread like kudzu since they are such neat boats.

I do tell them about kudzucraft.com, but they probably think kudzu is some sort of oriental food. So we wind up explaining about not only the kayak but about kudzu as well. I did order a T shirt, so maybe that will help.

Minnesota really is the land of 10,000 lakes and the kayaking is great! After 6 weeks of pretty intensive kayaking, I can give ya'll a report on how Jeff's SOF kayaks hold up. I have launched and taken out on sand, rocks and weeds. Castaway has also been dropped while getting put on top of the car. The 36 pound kayak has been carried up steep inclines that would have required 2 people for a heavier kayak. The paint job is looking a bit worn and somehow I have scraped a bit of paint off and there is a small seepage leak at the stern. Nothing that a sponge won't soak up. Maybe a half gallon after 4 hours of paddling, but nowhere near enough to get my tail wet. Lessens learned. (1) These really are some tough kayaks. Sorry Jeff, but I have abused Castaway a bit. (2) When going away for awhile and you are planning on really using the SOF kayak, bring along your hull paint. (3) Castaway paddled beautifully in 20 mph wind with white caps on the lake, but did take on some water from the waves. Here again a sponge did the job. (4) Carry Jeff's web site URL with you because a lot of people are curious about the "boat we don't sell around here". Thanks Jeff. You have designed one tough, smooth paddling little kayak.

Beautiful builds. I have a feeling that the folks in RI will go nuts over your boats. You know, on a pretty boat like the Ravenswood, a thin .25 in walnut or cherry rub rail might just add a neat bright finish touch. It is amazing how Jeff's boats catch the eye of people going by in a campground.

I was thinking more in the 10 -11.5 range. As a plotting learning experience, how about offsets for the bow or stern. Something to challenge the kid and show him that the math they teach in school has practical applications. Seems to me they do some X-Y coordinate stuff in the second or third grade. I thought I'd work with him to cut out the frames with a scroll saw. He's pretty good with that.

My grand kids were here last week and my 8 year old grandson just had to help with the kayak. He decided that he wants to build a kayak next summer when he comes to visit. So here are my thoughts. Yost has two small boats the Sea Flea and the smaller Sea Pup and both look like pretty straight forward builds. As a retired teacher, I would like to see a set of offsetts in lieu of plans since working with off-setts would be a great learning experience. Yes, I would be willing to pay for the off-setts and an instruction manual. If the boat could be completed in about 30 hours of construction by the kid with an adult helper it would be great. Obviously the table saw and jointer work would be completed by the adult. In fact the jointer work could be eliminated and could be accomplished by sanding by the kid. BTW Castaway should be skinned by this afternoon (lost some time messing about with the kids).

Just quoting Jeff's instructions. Thought it would get a rise from him.

I probably could have finished with one roll of sinew but someone said that if it was to look professional, all of the knots needed to be on the same side. Interestingly enough, I kept finishing the lashing on my right side no matter which side of the boat was being worked on. Since I figured that this guy might see my boat one day and know that I'm a champion goof up, I cut them loose and relashed them. It was really hard breaking myself from tieing off on the same side no matter where I was lashing. Lesson learned.

Hope they get the fabric to you fairly fast since I'm going to start skinning the Castaway Thursday. By the way, you were right, one roll of sinew was slightly less than enough, but I did undo a couple of screw ups and redid them. I think my fingers will be sore for a month. There's nothing like getting the frames together and seeing the boat for the first time.

Check out Stohlquist especially for the wife.

A scarfing jig is definitely in my near future. I have a piece of pressed wood with a melamine type finish on one side that I have been saving for awhile and I think it will make a nice jig. A wood turner friend of mine told me about a sawmill in Franklin NC (I think) that has a mixed bag of rough sawn lumber of various types. The reason I didn't follow up is that most of the lumber is still on the green side. "She who must be obeyed wants me to build her an end table kind of thing so I was thinking about driving up that way next week to check out what this guy has so while there I'll check for cherry and let you know. Don (my friend) got some red oak, white oak and walnut from this mill. The bride's table will have to wait until Castaway gets wet though.

The folks at Chesapeake Light Craft are big fans of Okoume. Went for cypress today and came home with WRC which was a much better grade of lumber, a couple of really clear pieces and a couple with minor (1 or 2) small knots. One piece is so doggone pretty that I might hang it up in the shop to just look at. It seems that finding any kind of real lumber has gotten harder and harder. I pity the furniture makers because I had to go through a whole stack to find a few good pieces since I didn't want to spend all of my time scarfing. I'm getting a real education from some of the guys at these lumber yards that sell quality material.

Those of us that live away from the coast have problems getting BS1088 without having to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. I understand from one lumber yard guy that BS1088 from China is terrible. He said that there was no way that it even came close to spec. A buddy found some 6/4 cypress not far from here today so I'm going there tomorrow to pick some up. All rough cut so I'll have to build a squaring gig, but I think it will be worth it. .

I had thought about using MDO for the frames and went to pick some up today. It was finished on one side and was supposed to have some small knot holes on the other. It looked really good, until I turned the good side over to check the other side. It did have many small knot holes on the other and most were holes with out the knots. They were indeed small, about half the size of a dime. Jeff had told me about Wurth Lumber near Chattanooga, so we took a bit of a ride and picked up some really pretty Baltic Birch in 5 x 5 sheets. If this stuff works as well as it looks, I'm really going to like it. Thanks for the tip Jeff. Not only does Wurth have some really good quality lumber but they also are a friendly bunch to work with. All in all a good trip.