I found some even earlier fiberglass sea kayaks. The Gulf Islander, designed by Ted Houk (and often homebuilt by early WKC members from Ted's molds), was first built in 1959. It had a round bottom, a 1 1/4" wide flange seam, high cockpit rim much like a sprint kayak but more rounded. The width of the hull without the flange was about 23". The designers sons -- told me (12/8/2000) that it came after the cold molded Amigo (1958) and two other cold molded wood prototypes Ted made in 1959. Robert Livingston (who created the free kayak design software on our website) paddled one from the San Juans to Johnstone Strait many years ago. Dick Thoms told me that in 1958 he built the first fiberglass kayak ever built in the Seattle area. It was based on the Klepper T-6 and he made only one of them. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Feb 15 2001 - 02:06:45 PST
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