SOF help | SouthernPaddler.com

SOF help

grandpa paddler

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2005
243
6
76
WNY-land of exhorbitant taxes
Seems like everybody is makin' strippers or plywood boats. Bein' the unusual sort, I want to try my hand on an SOF.

However, the only place I've found plans is Geodesic AiroLITE http://gaboats.com/ Anybody know of other sources? Anybody ever build one? Is it worth the effort?

I'd like to look around and do some comparison shoppin'.
 

grandpa paddler

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2005
243
6
76
WNY-land of exhorbitant taxes
I did check the Black Dog site and all I saw was Kayaks. As usual, I found Google next to worthless. I spent hours sorting thru junk. The only useful info I found sent me back to Geodesic. Most were yak related or trying to sell me a how to book or sign up for a class. A few chronicled their skin build but I didn't like what I saw, building a stripper would be easier than what these guys did! I'd try to build a yak but my legs and lower back don't likem.
 

grandpa paddler

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2005
243
6
76
WNY-land of exhorbitant taxes
Jimmy W said:
Did you see this build? Doesn't look too hard to do.
http://www.bushcraft.ridgeonnet.com/canoe2.htm

Saw it. Not exactly what I want (too short & wide) but it does present some possibilities. For my 1st ever build tho, I prefer to have a real set of plans in hand. Would like to do something +/-15', 30-32" @ widest point with maybe a little tumblehome. Like the dacron idea better than the canvas.
 

nobucks

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, sorry, I haven't been around for a while.

Check out Brian Schulz's website. He built an SOF sailboat and sailed it down in Baja.
http://www.capefalconkayak.com/jwboat.html

Skinning is done the same way as with a kayak, just without a deck. Staples on the gunwale can be covered with a wood strip or a strip of polypro webbing. Framing can be done with plywood frames, or in the traditional way, like Brian did it.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Observations and ruminations of an Olde Farte:

Nice lines on the boat. It looks to be light weight and of a strong frame. My sailing experience is trifling, and I quit rowing as soon as an outboard became available. Paddling is OK by me.

i had a case of uncured epoxy too. The whole inside of my first kayak was all a gooey mess. Turns out that epoxy is a TWO PART glue, and it works only if I added hardener. Anxiety syndrome had put my thinking box all atwitter, it seemed.

I’ve done a fair amount of camping in both canoes and kayaks. In many real life situations, I was landing without the benefit of a gently sloping beach of soft, forgiving sand. I always thought that small boats would be even funner if I could only have a few such beaches in a handy shirt pocket, and smilingly toss one out wherever I wanted to land. The rocks and logs that Mother Nature often provides can do turrible things to boat bottoms.

These events cause turribly disturbing feelings to boat builders. I was always glad to have a plywood hull wrapped around me when pointy rocks and rude logs were either suddenly popping up, or just beligerently standing there, right where I dearly wanted to land. Even with a bottom that was covered with fiberglass and epoxy, my boats have battle scarred bottoms from encounters with stuff in the water.

Where I’m going with this is that I hope the fabiic skin on your boat holds up. I hope that I am conveniently wrong when I predict that the fabric has two chances of surviving camping trips with two souls aboard - slim and none. Caution will become a second habit for landings and launchings. I wish you good fortune, and sincerely hope that I am wrong.
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Let's remember that skins on driftwood frames were used because ..........that's all they had . Most everywhere decent wood was available, it was used almost exclusively. SOF does have the advantages of light weight and relative building ease. It can make a useful boat, when used with it's limitations taken into consideration.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
That’s true for craft in open waters. I’m talking about where water, land, and boat are all together in the same place and at the same time. It’s a different ballgame there. Coral reefs will act like a can opener. So will rocks and logs along a shore.

As I said, I hope that I’m wrong. But, there are a lot of boats with steel hulls on the bottom. Some of them hit rocks.
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
One thing to think about too. The original kayaks were oiled skin covered. I don't know how that compares to modern fabrics, but I would think that was some pretty tough stuff. Leather is stil a very good choice for shoe soles that take incredible abuse.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
I think thst you have a good point. Not only is the oiled leather both slippery and stretchy, the wooden frame is lashed together, and is also flexible. A friend who I paddled with years ago built his kayak. He said he could feel it flexing in waves. A craft like that should be able to avoid and/or withstand damage quite a lot better than a rigid frame with a fabric.
Any way around the block we go, I hope that his boat is much less susceptible to rupture than I fear that it is. Bon voyage!