: I'm still not sure if a 3-piece frame will have enough strength. There's not
: a lot of glued area holding the longitudinals in place at the bulk heads,
: then again perhaps I think it needs more strength than is really
: necessary. After reading about a couple catastrophic failures of
: factory-produced 3-piece composite kayaks, it makes me wonder...

: Adding a separate skin to the frame makes a lot of sense; figuring out how to
: skin three parts without seams in undesirable places is one thing I see no
: way around if skinning each piece separately.

: I've also thought about a wood-framed folder, using a hooked scarf to join
: all the long bits. Designing a wood-frame folder sounds more like an
: engineering thesis topic than a relaxing past time....

: Of all the possible solutions, a decent roof rack seems like the best option
: even if it means finding a way to circumvent some budgetary hurdles. Maybe
: not as ambitious, but I'd rather be paddling than trying to solve problems
: with construction.

Locally we've mounted Yakima racks (local dealer sells them) on just about everything and they are seriously secure, these are not generic mounts, are designed for each application. If that mount slips you've made a serious error on installation.

Bill H.