> Having spent some time with the odd SOF builder, it looks quickly and > cheapely doable, but aCoaster inspired design, in my hands, would need to > be a pretty tough boat to survive more that 20 minutues with me. I'm much > gentler on my wife, though mentally, hmmm, some days...poor woman. SOF can be much much sturdier than you expect. The 8 and 12 ounce nylon and polyester fabrics are extremely sturdy. A friend was building SOF commercially for a while. He lost a boat off the roof of his car on the way to deliver it, doing 50+ miles per hour. The boat bounced off the guard rail, he went back picked it up, looked it over and didn't find damage. He explained what happened to the prospective buyer and she took delivery... I spent the day with him at a demo day. When someone would question durability I would lift the hull to eye level and drop it on a cobble beach. Not something I would do with a carbon or 'glass boat. While you could to it with a plastic boat I would be wary of suffering a hernia for the effort ;-) There are a few other great stories of robustness, driving over bow lines, leaving the boat cockpit up under the edge of a roof during a torential downpour... Go for the SOF build..... It's surprisingly easy, after you have the materials cut it's just a bunch of quiet time as you tie it together then sew the skin. Kirk (fwiw I built aluminum framed 8 ounce nylon skinned SOF) -- Kirk Olsen *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Feb 24 2010 - 12:41:47 PST
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