Kayak Project:: 1 - Design
Nov. 2nd, 2010 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andygatesThe first stage in turning a notion into a project is to work out what it is you actually want to do. Well, the notion is to build a folding sea kayak that's more capable than my fun-but-limited Sevy Pointer. What are its specific limitations?
* It's short, 10ft, so it doesn't exactly slice through waves. Long days out are tiring, and it turns to beam a bit too eagerly.
* Seaworthiness is nominal - a force 4 is the friskiest it'll play in.
* Being inflatable, it sits very high, and thus it weathercocks like a chicken on a church roof.
* While it's spectacularly stable, it cannot be rolled. If it ever capsizes (and being short, that means going beam-on in surf) you've got to exit the boat.
When it comes to home-build folding sea kayak plans, there's really one place to start and that's Tom Yost's Yostweks. There are lots of designs, so there's some whittling to do. First, general displacement: Allowing 100kg for paddler and kit, and wanting some gear stowage as well, we quickly get rid of all but the long models. Next, stability: I'm no ninja, so the twitchy designs are out. Beam comes into both of these. Finally, gear: I want some but not a daft amount -- this is a dayboat, not an expedition boat. If I build a barge, it'll be bargey all the time and I'll just overload the thing with unnecessary junk.
With all that in mind, I've settled on the Sea Tour 17. 17ft long, about the right cockpit size, 300lb displacement, but not the expedition-scale extra volume of the EXP. Here are the design drawings.
* It's short, 10ft, so it doesn't exactly slice through waves. Long days out are tiring, and it turns to beam a bit too eagerly.
* Seaworthiness is nominal - a force 4 is the friskiest it'll play in.
* Being inflatable, it sits very high, and thus it weathercocks like a chicken on a church roof.
* While it's spectacularly stable, it cannot be rolled. If it ever capsizes (and being short, that means going beam-on in surf) you've got to exit the boat.
When it comes to home-build folding sea kayak plans, there's really one place to start and that's Tom Yost's Yostweks. There are lots of designs, so there's some whittling to do. First, general displacement: Allowing 100kg for paddler and kit, and wanting some gear stowage as well, we quickly get rid of all but the long models. Next, stability: I'm no ninja, so the twitchy designs are out. Beam comes into both of these. Finally, gear: I want some but not a daft amount -- this is a dayboat, not an expedition boat. If I build a barge, it'll be bargey all the time and I'll just overload the thing with unnecessary junk.
With all that in mind, I've settled on the Sea Tour 17. 17ft long, about the right cockpit size, 300lb displacement, but not the expedition-scale extra volume of the EXP. Here are the design drawings.
