mdavis121212

Yea seems like the Firefly would work well that way. I shaved 2 inches off going form a 24 inch beam Carolina to a 22 inch beam Tempest but I still want something faster. Stability is getting to be less and less an issue for me. I guess stability on an Aleut Birdarka wasn't much. I hear they would roll over unless a paddler was inside.

So I'm about to start putting the Firefly kit together. But I'd really like it to be narrower. Is it possible to cut some off all the bulkheads and use thinner stringers to get a narrower beam? Or would that drastically change the handling of the boat?

Thanks P..... I think Im probably overthinking this. I should not have read the Greenland books. Also I'm not really that proeffecient at wood. All I know is I made my greenland paddle with the wrong grained wood and snapped it in half. So is Straight grained wood the same as Flat Sawn? Does Quarter Sawn, flat Sawn etc. even matter?

I live in Upstate NY and I'm having a tough time finding the right wood. I do have a source for cypress (don't know why we have that and not cedar)? Would that work? Thanks Mike

Hello In the Assembly manual for the Firefly you don't seem to mention anything about wood grain for the stringers and gunwales. Before I got the Firefly kit I was looking into building a Greenland kayak and they seemed to be very particular that you got "flat grained" wood. That is difficult to find where I live. So are the Kudzu gunwales stringers more forgiving when it comes to that?