- mostly for use in sheltered water
- mostly for exploring as opposed to long journeys
- wants high initial stability
- must be very manoeverable for playing in small creeks and inlets
- must be able to track well when required for straight line journeys
- needs lots of foot room: feet must be able to be vertical
- lightweight so easy to car-top and carry around.
She has seen some commercial kayaks which are possible but I thought I'd look at building one as an alternative. Something like the skin on frame is possible, and that might be a good option. But I also remembered the Mini Benny by Duane Strosaker (although mention of it now seems to have vanished from his website - I don't know why) which looked interesting, for its small siez and planing surfing ability, and then I came across the Rockhopper too. This second one in particular seemed to meet a lot of the brief, while going further too: looks great in rough water and surf. We get plenty of that too, so being able to deal wih it looks like a great bonus.
Rolling all these ideas together I've come up with a possible design. Loads of rocker, very U'd bow, completely flat towards the stern and with a transom. It feels like this might tick all the boxes.
- Short length, lots of rocker, U'd bow and flat bottom aft hould all mean very manoeverable.
- Short length = light and easy to handle out of the water. Plus, wooden constrution is almost bound to be lighter than the polywotsit commercial alternatives.
- Will probably track positively as is, with the hard chines in the aft half compared to the U'd front half giving some directional stability, but I can also add a retractable skeg to increase tracking further.
- Fairly wide, and flat bottom, will give high primary stability.
The looks have also grown on me since I designed it: I really quite like the odd transom now. I've been tweaking the design for a while and have pretty much settled on it as where I was trying to get to. Decision time: do I build it or not?
(No, I haven't finished the SoF, an I also have a Selway Fisher Prospector open canoe on the go for my brother and his family ;-)
