: See if this one works. I quoted your message so everyone could read
: it.

: I don't know why I had not thought about using thinner plywood
: before. It makes sense to me. Except for the rear deck where you
: might sit there isn't much strain on the frames I don't think.
: It should be pretty evenly loaded and it is more compression
: load than anything. The biggest risk to breaking is
: probablybending and once everything is lashed together that
: eliminates that (for the most part). Even if I am wrong you
: could just make smaller center cutouts and it should be still be
: lighter than 1/2". It's a shame marine ply is so hard to
: find around here. I want to try it now.

Hi Jeff,

Btw, 1/4" plywood frames work just fine, depending on the design of the boat and how it's used. Works fine on long gentle curves like a baidarka, will be more difficult on a shorter wider boat with more tighter bends. Also the openings in the frames have to be reduced to increase the area of the plywood, which partially reduces the weight savings. I used 1/4" frames on the catamaran kayak, works fine.

Bill H.