A friend and I were toying with ideas like these, and I figure the best solution is to build a three-piece frame with a one-piece skin. This eliminates the need for bulkheads. The skin should still fit in your cockpit piece.

: Lately I've been trying to figure out how to both transport a kayak more
: easily but also paddle more often, and a 3-piece take-apart kayak sounds
: like an interesting solution to explore. Being able to fit an entire kayak
: inside my little hatch back has several benefits, mainly that I can carry
: it with me more often and will be able to "just throw it in the car
: and go", which should lead to paddling more often at more varied
: venues. Faster assembly time compared to a folder helps too. I don't have
: a roof rack, and the foam block method I've been using leaves a lot to be
: desired (nearly lost a kayak off the roof more than once - a flimsy roof
: panel allow tight tie-downs to go slack on the highway).

: The twist is that I'd like to try a 3-piece skin on frame kayak as opposed to
: a wood-core composite; I can't find any evidence of anyone attempting to
: build a skin on frame kayak as a 3-piece, so the engineering hurdles may
: be beyond my capabilities. It SEEMS straight forward enough, but the
: gunwale/chine/keelson connections to the solid bulkheads seem like
: definate weak areas. Reinforcing these areas with gussets or other methods
: might provide enough strength, but its hard to say just using armchair
: engineering.

: I've also looked at folders, but my boat building budget is very small and
: rules out buying lots of aluminum tubing (or large quanitities of epoxy
: and fiberglass for that matter). I've been unsuccessful in sourcing enough
: aluminum to build a folder, but have found/begged for/bought enough wood,
: fabric, coating, etc. over the past 6 months to make a "Yost"
: style wood frame. A wood-frame folder is a possibility as well, but one
: could build an engineering career on all the connectors needed to make
: this method work. I had all intentions of building a typical frame, but
: now a 3-piece take apart seems like a rewarding deviation from the
: intended course.

: Anyone else seen or tried to do something similar?

: Any potential problems that might need to be addressed?

: Getting others' opinions usually reveals potential problems that I overlook
: or believe to be inconsequential.