Trakka

cnckayaks.com have a specific design for rolling

Best wishes from OZ

Well done. I like the beach ball for flotation great idea

Hi Denis, Great review on the Shad a nice kayak. Our Monday paddling group also keep to the creeks rivers and lakes now and love the exercise once a week. Regarding your float bag comments I gained an enormous amount of confidence after watching a YouTube video titled: Skin - on - Frame Kayak self rescue. My SOF kayak is so light and buoyant the water drains from the cockpit after turning the kayak upside down in the water and a rear deck entry is possible even for a septuagenarian. As a group we have a self rescue day once year off a nice sandy bay beach in the warm months, lots of laughs and we probably look like a bunch of old idiots floundering around to those on the beach but this practice keeps us paddling with confidence for the rest of the year. Hope to see you on the water one day. Bob

A great looking SHAD, well done. Enjoy the paddling.

Brunzeel@Brookvale, Sydney

Hear Hear

http://www.bruynzeel.com.au Lightweight gaboon, cuts smoothly with the jig saw. Buy an 8x4 your sure to build another one

Hi Quiet, The grooves are intentionally filed into the timber to avoid point stress on the lashings. Jeffs build manuel accompanying his plans and also his videos will lead you through all those build details. Have fun.

Hi Teasea, I used Paulownia and can't speak highly enough about it. Plantation timber grown in central and north NSW, Australia and Asia, its a delight to work with hand tools similar to Western Red Cedar and has comparable strength and marginally lighter in weight. Also glues well. The photo shows the colour difference between the ply stem, keel, chine, stem,gunwhale and WRC sheer riser. Search paulowniatimber.com.au and you can order sizes to you needs DAR and they will pack and ship. I don't know if they ship to USA but an email will inform our American friends, they were pleasant to deal with and small orders not a problem and cost effective as the timber could be used as delivered.

Jeffs nail in sewing hole to position fabric gives a great result. Also try using an welting cord and fold fabric under as you sew.

Top video.................but shouldn't the office manager be included in there somewhere

Kayakers viewing this post are thinking Hmmmm been there done that. It sharpens up your balance sensors though and reminds you how much fitter you are than the average person because you love going paddling.

Very comfortable to read & view. I am sure it will harvest more enquiry for KUDZU.

Yes Please, love to see it all. We are having bush fires and 90s in Australia so the air con is getting a work out.

YEP!

Hi Jeff, CapecodJohn 235lbs and I 168lbs are of quite different body builds so does the displacement and the weight of the paddler have to be taken into consideration with the resistance calculations. Looks are also important to me and I've often noticed how a boat that looks like a dream boat on paper can be quite disappointing when seen on the water and vice versa. I'am sure you will come up with another great kayak.

Hi Jeff, I've been holding off building one of your designs for a while now as I feel the lighter experienced paddler ( I'am 6ft and weigh 168 lbs) would like a little less stability than the current designs. So to me, 1. Weight, the lighter the kayak the more I use it. 2. Resistance / ease of paddling, still feeling fresh after 4 hours of paddling (I then don't doze off in front of the tv that night) 3. Stability, The longer you paddle ( years of experience ) the less of a concern it is, you adapt and learn to balance intuitively. 4. Speed potential

​Jeff - What about a strategically cut V NOTCH in the frame or stringer to pull the lashing into and thus jamming the lashing before moving on to the next joint ? You would have to be careful where the notch was cut so as not to weaken the the frame or stringer and cause a fracture in future use of the kayak. The shape, design and angle of the V NOTCH may take some thought to be self jamming but may be another step forward in the simplification of the building fun.