Paul Raymond wrote: > > I am building a double folding kayak, a Blandford PBK19, per plans from > Clarkcraft. This will be primarily used in lakes, Long Island Sound, and > until tested in warm water within swimming distance of shore (FYI the bottom > is essentially done including endposts, the first two crossframes, and > stringers and gunwales installed for the front quarter of the boat.) I am > looking ahead to skinning and have three possible routes to follow. They are > in order as follows Paul, You have a lot of detailed questions that deserve detailed answers. But I am leaving this morning for Paddlesports Show in NJ and out effectively until Monday nite (paddling plans on Monday) and so won't be able to go into this deeply. Still here are some thoughts. I sense, and I may be wrong, that you have not really been around folding kayaks and are working mainly from reading materials and websites. The reason I say that is your the focus on getting skin material that is stretchy and your misconception of how sponsons factor into a folding kayak's design. You seem to be taking the technology around non-folding skin boats and extrapolating on this for use on a folding kayak. If you follow that route you will have either one of two things: 1. a folding kayak that you will never be able to take apart (if you work on fitting the skin to the frame while making the skin) or 2. a folding kayak into whose skin you will never be able to place the frame. It is imperative that you have enough room inside the skin to slide in frame halves, which I assume is the assembly method you are after. There are others, like the new approach introduced recently in several Nautiraids and in the new Klepper Alulite in which the frame is assembled entirely outside the skin and dropped into the skin via a zippered back deck. So having a skin that will accept the frame easily and then stretch the frame is critical. There are some folding kayaks that do not employ sponsons and they are harder to assemble and they are very exacting to sew skins for. It would be okay to sew a seam below the waterline. Several models do that and have done well, the Klepper Aerius I and its smaller sister the 2000 have a seam directly along the keel line. But they cover it with keelstripping both inside and outside. You are correct in worrying about how any material you use will react over time to being folded. The materials classically used in folding kayaks have held up quite well even over 30 years of folding and refolding a skin or leaving it folded for years. This has tended to be rubber or hypalon. Other materials have done okay but the hypalon is proven over longer periods. I will try to get to your message on Tuesday and I hope some others will pitch in with thoughts. Frankly, though, in my experience constructing your own folding kayak virtually never comes up with something that is anywhere as good as even the run-of-the-mill factory one in terms of consistent skin fit and performance. The skin winds up, over time, being either too tight and screwing up the frame and popping stitches or so loose that it like a rumpled bed sheet and creates enormous drag and sluggishness. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Mar 31 2000 - 03:53:53 PST
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