I first built a larger, rigid, George Dyson type Baidarka of 6m and only 17kg . This I wanted to take to the Inside Passage, but after I found out what the airlines charge for transporting this kayak, I made a new smaller folder. The only problem was that I had three months left to build it from scratch...

That's why it is called Last Chance.

"Last Chance" Design 1995 (HHM)

In this my first folding design, a very loosely fitting skin was laced over a very loose frame. One could forget about the skin's contribution to frame stability; in my case, this worked only in theory. Maybe this is due to actually very small loads, I don't know. Here are measurements that seem to point in the same direction.

However, some parts of that frame were put loosely together for my inability to do a better design. Some parts even had some sort of interlock that I had to cut away to be able to assemble the boat. In essence, being outdoors gave nature a great chance to get me streamlining my assembly procedure.

But it was amazing what loads and abuse that frame was able to bear. This surely is good news for any newcomer. At least in my case even that first design was well good enough to do the job.