: Tom

: Amazon.com is the place!! And if you haven't read Robert Morris' book, "
: Building Skin on Frame Boats " as well, then you should make it a
: must as well. Totally different style and eliminates the need for big
: forms and workbench, and the boat is built to fit YOU and not just you
: trying to fit the boat. It's worth the read.

Morris' book is a much more traditional approach to building SOF boats. Putz's method strikes me as sort of "Greenland Kayak meets Geodesic Airolite Boat". Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that traditional boats are supposed to be flexible and it seems that the Putz method eliminates a lot of that flexibility. People here who've build them can speak directly to that issue.

Rehd is correct in that Morris' method is simpler to set up for. All you need is a floor, a couple of sawhorses, and five simple temporary forms/spreaders that are only used early in the process. It took me half an an hour to lay out and cut these out on the band saw. Four out of the five are reusable on any future boats, since only the center spreader is specific to the boat being built (it determines the beam). Making a simple rib gauge is really fast, and I also have a block that I use for marking lashing holes for deck beams, which is nothing more than a piece of scrap firring strip that happened to be the right size.

Lest we give MR. Morris all the credit, there are many other sources for similar information. Bob Boucher's video shows an even simpler approach than Morris. Chris Cunningham's two-part Sea Kayaker article is available as a reprint and is well worth it. His method is slower, but looks to be very strong. I have Brinck's, Zimmerly's and Dyson's books on order, as they seem to be often quoted references on building traditional craft. If you can find a set of "The Little Kayak Books", I hear they're worth their weight in gold. ;-)