azucha

Great work -- fine lines. Now the canvas fun part, lol.

Great work! I always enjoy the frame on grass (FROG) pics. The lines really pop! Congratulations on progress.

Hey guys: My brother wants tandem canoe that he and my 5 YO nephew can use on a lake. I'm interested in Jeff's tangerine but don't seem to find any pics. I have read the one thread on here about Tangerine. Any comments, pics, etc. would be most welcome. Al

Jeff, Took Castaway for another set of trail runs Sunday. I took your suggestion and removed seat cushion and she was much less tender with the lower center of gravity. Now I have to decide if I want to removed floorboards and further reduce center of gravity. She tracks dead-on straight. The wind picked up to near 10 knots and I rode a few swells. Check out this picture of my neighbor on trial run. Does her waterline look represent what you would expect from the plans? Is the stern squat too much? Thanks for drawing her. Lots of nice words about style and handling.

Thanks millerwb. If you have any questions about the build, I'll be glad to help as I can. I learned a lot through process. I'll likely build another skin on frame with lashing, but not sure what the plans will be. While I'm a novice kayaker, I really enjoy building the boats. I'm especially fond of lashing. I found the stitching part easy and fun. Keep me posted. Feel free to sent me msg with questions.

Thanks for ideas Jeff. My post was meant to emphasize my lack of experience kayaking and not comment of stability of design. I have never kayaked before so I was not surprised at ability. I do think the seat may well affect the center of gravity. After it stops raining this weekend, I'll give it another test run. I've received great comments on the look of the Castaway.

Castaway launch today! Nice spring day on Galveston Bay. I have a lot to learn about kayaking. I dumped her 3 times -- first was less than arms length away from dock; 2nd I made it about 15 yards; 3rd about 50 yards. I cannot say much about performance at this point. Still trying to figure how to keep her stable. I found that scooting back as far in the cockpit as possible and keeping back on crossbeam helped a lot. The dock makes it easy to get in and out of her. I'll have to practice keep her from tipping. Lesson learned.

Nice patterns and intellectual property respect! Well done. Keep up the progress.

A 2x8x8 @ $29 is more viable than an 1x8x8 fir @ $35. WRC would be much preferred to Douglas fir (IMHO). The cost of stringers is minimal as part of total construction cost, so I would get the best, strongest, straightest, tightest boards possible.

Look forward to progress reports Action Tiger! I'm almost finished skinning my Castaway. Build has gone well. Cutting frames and stringers took the most time for me. Lashing and skinning went faster than I thought it would. Keep us posted.

Trying to learn to skin! Any comments on puckers on the cockpit stapling on Castaway? 11 oz polyester. Will this iron out? Not finding much stretch in this fabric.

Not quite FROG because ground is too soggy from rain, but two coats of boiled linseed oil, mineral spirits and varnish mix. Redwood sole, frame mix of WRC and recycled redwood.

Hey Piston Head -- I cannot give you much insight as yet. I've just finished lashing my Castaway and have tested getting in and out with it sitting on pillow and bumpers in living room. My brother, who also has damaged knees, has a SOT plastic boat and he struggles to get on and off it. Castaway does have a larger, open cockpit. I cannot see much difference between it and SOT one as far as getting in and out. Perhaps others with more experience will respond. However, it really is a question that only you can answer.

Question about floor in Castaway. I would really like a strip floor in Castaway. I'm thinking about lashing strips to top of frames 5',6", 6'8", 7'10", and 10'3". Would this dramatically affect the center of gravity? I'm thinking about using the 5/8" (height) x 1" (width) stringer style strips. Alternatively, I could lash under these frames but unsure if this would interfere with skin and invite abrading issues. Manual calls for plywood floorboard but doesn't specify width (yes, will vary by design) and seems that floorboard is about keel height on the frames. Comments welcome.

I zip tied up castaway yesterday. I used zip ties in place of shock cords as a throw back to my stitch and glue experience. I found it easy to loosely loop the stringer in place, move fore and aft, port to starboard, and keep level and then snug down each to stringer. I found this process allowed me to get everything aligned and fitted nicely. Now, I go back and clip off each of the six zip-ties on that frame, recheck the frame location measurement and vertical alignment, then start lashing. Working on developing lashing speed. I'm kind of slow at the moment, but I get quicker with each completed set.