(Jake Janovetz) wrote in
om:

Of the Pygmy boat I tried I liked the Coho the best too. The Arctic
Tern, at least for me, had way too much volume for a Greenland style
design.

For the person that posting the initial message to the thread; don't
sell yourself short in your ability to build a cedar strip boat. The
building process is very forgiving, probably more so than building a
S&G boat.

John-

You sound quite knowledgeable on the designs of these kits. As I
mentioned, I've built two Pygmy's and am pleased with the results.
I'm very interested in the cedar strip design, but would like to see
one first.

Demoing a cedar strip model can be even more difficult than finding one of
the common S&G designs.

I'm mainly concerned about two things. First is the time required.
My Coho took about 80hrs and I've read that the cedar strips take
considerably longer than that.

My cedar strip boat took 5 months to build. I didn't work on it every day
and I didn't spend any marathon sessions working on it. The construction
process is pretty conducive to popping down to the work shop for an hour or
two to make some progress. In my case, since I live in the northeast in a
place where the winters are long and cold, their really isn't much local
paddling available, so it's a good time to work on boats. Since building a
cedar strip *is* a long, time-consuming process there is no point in trying
to rush it. I probably spent a longer time building mine since I did
everything from scratch (including milling my own strips). BTW, I've got a
website which chronicles the building of my Outer Island:

http://caddis.mannlib.cornell.edu/paddle/outerisland/

I'm also concerned about the equipment
required. I don't have much of a wood shop and frankly I'm not very
interested in acquiring one. I have friends with a good deal of
equipment, though.

How much additional equipment is needed is dependant upon whether you get a
kit, partial kit, or do everything from scratch. Premilled strips (with
beads and coves) can be purchased from a number of sources. Many of the
cedar strip designs have plans as well as pre-cut forms available. There are
some complete kits available that include everything you'll need (including
the strongback). Pretty much any of the tools you used to build the Coho
can also be used for a cedar strip boat.

If you're interested in building a cedar strip boat I strongly recommend
getting Nick Schades book (http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Book/). Check out
the rest of his web site and especially the building forum to get any
possible question you might have answered.

Where would you suggest for a cedar strip kit? You've clearly seen
several of the s&g kits. What additional equipment would be required?

The best place for cedar strip kits is through Newfound Woodworks:
(http://www.newfound.com/)

Nick has a really good page which describes the tools you'll need.

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Book/Tools/index.html