I know it may seem a little radical in this day and age, but you should consider not designing the boat at all before you start building. Just decide about how long you want it. Cut the gunwales slightly longer. Then decide about how wide you want it, cut a stick slightly shorter. With the ends of the gunwales tied together, insert the stick between the gunwales slightly aft of center. You will end up with the outline of a kayak. Adjust this with more spacers until you get a shape that is pleasing to the eye. Use the available greenland-style building instructions to flesh it out.

I enjoy putting a pencil to paper (or mouse to mousepad) as much as the next guy, but there is no substitute to working at full-scale with the materials in front of you. The traditional Inuit and Aleut method of building is ideally suited for this.

> I was planning on making my next boat a North Bay (tried it out and loved
> its sporty feel, low deck, etc.), but in recent weeks have become
> increasingly enamored with the idea of trying to fashion a Greenland style
> "skin"-on-frame boat. I have ordered Peterson's book on the
> subject, and over the next few months will also get Boucher's video, the
> Sea Kayaker articles by Cunningham and either Chapelle's (and coauthor)
> book or the Little Kayak Book. I don't know what plans are available from
> these sources, but I have also entertained the idea of trying to do the
> design myself. I would love to have a boat that looks like the beautiful
> Greenland boat hanging in the musuem over on Cape Cod. It is truly
> gorgeous, and the few skin-on-frames that I have seen thus far don't
> really excite me so much in terms of aesthetics. In any event, for a
> semi-amateur (I've only built one stitch-n-glue thus far), would it be a
> mistake to try and do anything other than follow pretty precisely someone
> elses plans? Would some sort of boat design software be of any use it
> trying to replicate the appearance of the Cape Cod boat that I am
> particularly fond of, while also giving me some indication of its handling
> characteristics and whether it would really paddle well with me in it?
> Thanks for any thoughts.

> Dave Walker