''Folding Kayak by Thomas Yost: Feathercraft Style Frame''

Tom has built approximately 15 boats since 1975, with the first 8 being woodstrip/fiberglass sea kayaks. Of that group, two have been Aleut designs constructed from David Zimmerly's offsets in his book "QAJAQ". He built them to scale but made changes to the deck shape. In addition, Tom built a woodstrip version of George Dysons double .

Having grown a bit tired of building woodstrips, he decided to try a hand at non folding skin boats. He first made three George Dyson singles, the first two of all wood construction, and the third using wood cross sections with aluminum stringers.

He immediately realized that these were more seaworthy than were the woodstrip hulls. The flex in the skin and the concave skin shape between stringers, really slowed down the roll rate as well as allowing the hull to conform to the waves.

Above is a photo of the folding single that Tom was building 1998(?). You will notice a striking similarity to the "Feathercraft" designs. Since he paddles a Feathercraft K-Light, the similarity is no accident. You will also notice that there are very few parts. This boat follows the KISS principal. ( Keep It Simple Stupid)!

The tubing is all 3/4 in. Aluminum 6061/T6 thin wall. The tubes are attached to the Cross sections using "L" shaped brackets pop riveted to the tubes. The frame weighs about 15 lbs and takes only a few minutes to assemble. The frame has a single stretcher bar at the keel. The skin will be made of 14 oz. pre-shrunk nylon. The material will be coated inside and out with three coats of black Neoprene. The deck will receive additional coats of white hypalon to provide a light color. The boat is 15.5 ft (4.73m) long by 24 in. (61cm) wide.

Tom plans to use zippers along the deck ridge for closure and sewn in sponsons to assure a tight fit and to provide additional stability.

At least in my case, the zipper/sponsons solution has worked more than once. Just take care.