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Re: It appears a lot do
By:Keith Kaste
Date: 4/21/1998, 7:53 pm

Could we maybe hear from Nick and John Winters and other builders with a lot of boats under their belt? I tend to agree with Brian. I think double glassing your boat is overkill. There's no need to be concerned about catastrophic failure in a normally constructed stitch and glue or strip kayak. I beat the hell out of my stitch and glues in all kinds of rough water and have never had a problem. These boats are certainly as rugged as the high priced fiberglass boats from the major manufacturers. My boats always seem to tip the scale at just under 40 pounds. I can't imagine a full sized wooden kayak weighing in the 20 pound range. That might be why you got your failures, George. Did those boats have balsa cores? Your website offers what seems to me to be unbelievably ultra light weight kayaks. I am also a mechanical engineer. But you don't have to be an engineer to realize that as a general rule of thumb, as your vessel gets lighter it gets more fragile.

> I met one fellow in Michigan, a commerical builder, who will
> not demo a boat under 50 pounds because of the amount of damage done
> on landing and launching.

> I have had 2 failures of the traditional construction 6oz, 1/4",
> 6oz, on landing on a single fist sized rock in 1' waves.

> Either I mix really bad epoxy or a lot of people refuse to report
> their failures. I believe it is the later.

Messages In This Thread

Re: It appears a lot do
Keith Kaste -- 4/21/1998, 7:53 pm
Confession: I double glassed.
Paul Stomski -- 4/27/1998, 4:15 pm
Re: Confession: I double glassed.
NPenney -- 4/29/1998, 7:26 am
Re: Confession: I double glassed.
Mark Kanzler -- 4/29/1998, 9:51 am
Re: Confession: I double glassed.
Mark Kanzler -- 4/28/1998, 3:39 pm
Re: It appears a lot do
Nick Schade -- 4/21/1998, 9:06 pm