Re: [Paddlewise] Kayak Chop Job

Nick Schade wrote:
> Joe builds beautiful boats and his workmanship is impeccable, but the 
> "Roller's Recess TM"  always bothers me. Seems to me it is much bigger 
> than it needs to be to serve the purpose of rolling easily. If he had 
> taken the back deck back up immediately behind the coaming, it would 
> have served just as well. It is really the back of the coaming you 
> need low, not the back deck. The extended recess looks a little odd to 
> my eye. 
One of thing I did on the Outer Island I built was to cut the cockpit 
open such that I could place the foam seat 3-4" in front of the  back 
section of the cockpit combing.  Then, instead of using a backband, I 
have a mini-cell foam "ramp" that slopes from the seat back to the rear 
bulkhead and edge of the combing.  That allowed me to lay back much 
easier (I can put my head on the rear deck) than if the seat were closer 
to the rear combing.

Some of you may remember that the Outer Island I built was essentially 
broken in half when a large maple branch fell on it during a storm a 
couple of years ago.  Although there were only 4 strips on the entire 
boat that were intact from bow to stern, Nick convinced me that I should 
try to rebuild it.  That was about the time that my son started to 
required more care from me (we stopped using an Au Pair), my wife took 
on a second job (owns a small business) and I started getting involved 
in another hobby.  As a result, the boat is still sitting in my garage.  
However, I do have the hull completely rebuilt and essentially all I 
really need to do is replace all the strips from about a foot in front 
of where the cockpit was to just behind it.  I considered building 
something like the "Roller's Recess TM" but will probably just rebuild 
it like it was before (except I'm going to put an  ocean cockpit in it 
instead of the small keyhole I had before).  My current plan is to have 
it finished in time to launch when the local lake has thawed  in the 
Spring (and take it with me on a planned vacation in Maine next July).
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