Re: Kit kayaks.... I've built two Pygmy Coho's. I've generally been happy with the construction of the kayak. I think their directions fall a little short regarding seats and hatches, which are almost treated as an afterthought. My general attitude, I built it, I can repair it. There seem to be several friend of friend stories that the the wood composites are pretty tough (surviving falling off racks at highway speeds, etc.). It is pretty amazing how a bunch of long thing strips of plywood can come together into something that tough. Strength depends in part on how well you build the wood composite. Scratches you can sand out or fill with epoxy or varnish. In fact Pygmy assumes the bottom strip of fiberglass along the keel may need to be replaced from time to time as it gets scratched up by landings. It is possible to split a seam, I know, I did it when trying to install a bulkhead that was a bit too big for the interior dimension, but repair was applying more tape, fiberglass and sanding. I was also putting a lot of force on the seam, essentially forcing a wedge inside the hull. Strength seems to be as good as the fiberglass, and in theory, less brittle with the wood core than a pure fiberglass. You can make it tank like, both in weight and strength by multiple layers of epoxy and glass inside and out, or you can make it more lightweight, and a bit more fragile by reducing the weight of glass cloth, and where or how many layers you add. They are rigid, like fiberglass kayak. dave -- Dave Uebele (daveu_at_sptddog.com) Spotted Dog Systems http://sptddog.com/daveu.html *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Dec 07 1999 - 14:58:48 PST
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