:I just assumed
: anyone in their right mind would ONLY consider such a drastic treatment
: for air travel.

If traveling by air you can stuff your gear inside each part and claim the boat is really just fancy baggage.

It also can fit in a van -- even a mini van -- which reduces the need for a roof rack. And you can store it in a basement.

Or, if you built it in a basement and it won't go up the stairs, or out a window, in one piece after it is completed -- then you cut it into two or three pieces.

There is one version of a take-apart kayak which is cut so that the pieces stack inside each other. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it, or where I saw it. I believe the stern is a bit less thatn 1/3rd long, and goes into the bow, through a bulkhead port. Then the filled bow is inserted into the middle of the boat through a large cockpit opening. You end up with a single piece about 6 feet long, which stores in a closet, fits in a car, or goes in an airplane. At 6 feet long it could probably go in the luggage compartment on a Greyhound bus, too.

Since you are able to slice the boat into "thirds" of irregualr sizes, the idea of making the cockpit opening big enough to accept one of the pieces seems like a course to attempt. You simply would make the middle section longer than the part you wanted to insert, and check the width at the point that you cut the boat to ensure it is narrow enough to fit into whatever cockpit opening you have, or plan to have. Even if you can't get all three pieces to nest together, just being able to store 1 part inside the middle reduces your burden from three pieces of baggage to two.

I'm not sure how they charge for shipping these things by air, but the weight of the biggest section (when stuffed with the smallest) would be about 2/3 of the weight of the entire boat -- maybe in the 25 to 30 pound range -- and the weight of the remaining section would be about 15 pounds. By stuffing part of the boat into the center section you are reducing the space you take up in the cargo bay, and still not getting a real heavy piece of "baggage".

PGJ