Kayak Building Bulletin Board

User Profile

John D.

My name is John Doornink and I live in the Puget Sound area on the shores of Liberty Bay near Poulsbo, Washington with my dear wife and 5 wonderful children and two Yellow Labradors. I finished a Cunningham Stitch & Glue just in time for R2K2 in August 2002. Its stability was less than anything I had previously paddled and I was at first sure I'd spent all that effort building the wrong boat. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for my comfort level and skill to stretch a bit to fit the boat, which is on the water almost every morning for a workout paddle. I taught myself to roll in September 2002 and have been working my way down the list of Greenland rolls since then. I have also built a Skin on Frame for my son Andrew (12'10"L x 16.5"W) mostly using the plans in Cunningham's book. I finished another SOF for my wife in June 2004. I have carved several Greenland paddles and have a stack of more cedar 2x4's in the basement awaiting transformation into new paddles. I also have been enjoying making stuff from Neoprene and presented the neoprene workshop at R2K4. I have made several sprayskirts and akuilisaqs (Greenlandic Sprayskirts), four tuiliks, mitts, socks, shorts, camera cases -- Neoprene is great stuff and is easy to work with.

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