Hi Ed, You might want to examine the reasons you want to build a squirt boat. It is not going to be cheaper to build a whitewater safe squirt boat from scratch than it is to buy a used professionally made one that is used. Lots of people I know thought they could; but it usually does not work out. It takes a lot of time and knowledge to have it come out safe. And if you are going anywhere with whitewater, it needs to be safe; squirts can be IMO more dangerous than plastic in many situations. From past experience if you are starting from scratch, the materials needed in addition to the glass and resin cost as much if not more than the glass and resin, the little things add up real quick.

If you really want to build one, become friends with local squirt boaters, try out as many different designs as you can, decide if you want a short or long squirt (big differences). Try different size boats, most squirt boaters have owned a few new/used boats before they really learned how much and where they like volume. Also most squirt boaters are pretty good glass workers, some very good, someone locally may have built thier own boat before too. Finally even though it is out of print, buy beg or steal a copy of the Boat Builders Manuel by charles whalbridge, it is a cheap price for a lot of knowledge regarding construction of "safe" glass boats.

Finally there is a lot of squirt info on the BB on the below link. There are several posts regarding your questions on building boats pros/cons, as well as many used boats for sale. If you get deeper into it, e-mail me and I will help you out where I can.

Bart

Oh, there are dozens of ways to build one of's but most including the cardboard idea have lots of problems. as far as cardboard goes: sharp edges= stress points/ridges, not being able to chop it to your weight, inseam, etc. Also it will be really heavy not mention wet cardboard falling out all the time...

: Hey all,

: I am out in Colorado and school is over!!! But I need to make some of my
: local runs a little cooler so I was thinking of making a squirt boat. A
: buddy showed me this page and I was really into it so I am writing this to
: you. I have paddled an X for the past two seasons and love it, but I want
: some thing a little slicier. My main question is how to go about this
: project i have a friend out east who made his boat out of Cardboard then
: glassed it all over, which was pretty cool until it blew of his car on the
: highway. yet he made another one out of a refigerator box this time and it
: rocks i've paddled it a few times. Is this the way to go or can some one
: else help me out here. If you build boats please reply I need some help
: here.... -Ed