hello nick (& the rest),

I read your response here & I'm surprised !

I respect your opinion. I believe you know about kayak building/ designing much more than I do, but something here isn't clear to me.

just like you said, the construction method in discussion works very well with the design method you described, & that's probably the way the inuits & aleuts did it.

but aren't we trying to create a kayak with certain behavior charachteristics ? a certain amout of initial/secondary stability ? a certain amount of bow/stern floation ? prismatic coefficient ? etc'. aren't we looking for a design method that will give us a better prediction of the behavior of the future kayak, than the prediction we get with the inuit/aleut method ?

my theory says: make a kayak that will give you the behavior/responses you're looking for. not the look. worry about the look when you buy a car.

what will he do if he puts his new kayak on the water for the first time, paddle it for 20 minutes & say: "this thing sucks ! my plastic is much better ! " or should I ask, how can he refrain from getting into such situation ?

am I the only one ?

is my theory wrong ? (no, I don't intend to change it)

erez

> 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.