[Paddlewise] geodesic airolite (was depoe bay pictures)

From: Kirk Olsen <kolsen_at_imaginelan.com>
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 09:39:04 -0400
At 07:49 PM 5/14/2002 -0700, Dave Kruger wrote:
>Check out the yaks and canoes on page two:
>http://www.boat-links.com/DepoeBay/02/BoatFest-1.html
>
>Not sure what a "Geodesic Aerotlite canoe" is, but it looks light as a 
>feather.

Platt Monfort of Wiscasset Maine has been selling Geodesic Airolite boat 
plans ( http://www.geodesicairoliteboats.com )
  for a long time.  He's got something like 22 different designs, from an 8 
pound wee lassie style canoe up through 16 foot row boats.  The boats are 
very interesting, they are built with construction similar to a fabric 
airplane wing (my understanding of the construction that is).  They are 
built with a wooden frame that is tensioned with kevlar strands.  For an 
exterior they use a stretched dacron fabric.  For adhering it to the frame 
Monfort sells a special tape that is used in place of lashing, glue, or 
fasteners.

At the Maine Boatbuilding show, a few years ago, Monfort's booth had a 
section of dacron stretched over a 2 by 4 wooden frame and were having 
people jump on the fabric to see just how strong it is.

Someone in my area has an airolight rowboat, it's cool to watch him one 
hand carry it from the car to the water.

There are quite a few people using polyester(dacron) for skin/frame 
kayaks.  There's a good writeup on how to use it for a skin frame kayak at
http://www.imaginelan.com/aleut/polyester_skinning.html

kirk

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Received on Wed May 15 2002 - 06:39:34 PDT

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