I am about 90% done building a SOF boat (my first) using Cunningham's book and I have found it to be an excellent guide. Right now I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up so I can put a seal coat on the fabric. It's gotten almost to 50 degrees F a few times here so I'm getting close. The build went pretty quickly since I didn't have to wait for long glue cycles or do a lot of sanding as I did when I built some stitch and glue boats a few years back. On the other hand, I had some difficulties locating materials such as the bending stock for the ribs and the fabric and coating. Now that I've been through the process once, it will be much easier on my next attempt. I do like the freedom of Cunningham's quasi-traditional design approach where you can make a series of different size boats from the same basic design rules. My boat at this point is quite light and very pretty. I don't know exactly how well it is actually going to paddle or roll as I have only tried it on the water with a temporary skin for a short duration to make sure it wasn't too far off my design goals (ie: it tracked pretty well and it didn't sink!). I have heard on the Qujaqusa site that some people don't care for Cunningham's method of skinning the frame as it ends up with a rough seam on the top of the gunwale which could tear up your hand while paddling. I have not experienced this problem personally as I have not yet gotten my skinned boat waterproofed to the point that I can paddle it. I'll give you more feedback as I get more experience (hopefully within the next month or two). Mark Goff Bangor, Maine ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.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 Sun Apr 01 2007 - 07:14:34 PDT
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