All,

Chris Longson in NZ has just launched an interesting boat. See the attached link for his SOF F1 inspired 2 seat boat. Nice build pics for those interested, and also interesting use of willow (raw) for ribs.

For qajaq usa post on the boat: http://www.qajaqusa.org/cgi-bin/GreenlandTechniqueForum_config.pl?read=582820

for images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelgear/sets/72157616161886169/

Regards,

Tom

You can certainly see the F1 heritage in her. Love the inbuilt bow "lifting handle". Not too sure about those willow ribs - much prefer our laminated bamboo. Mick was talking about maybe building a "double F1'; all the sorting out has been done for him.

Good morning,
Im geting ready to start my F2 , just having trubel geting the gunwalls at a good price and localy , not having much luck.
I like the bow handel, , my design is going to be closer to the F1 , im adding just enuf to bring it to 18ft, mooving the frunt cocpit forword by 300, and mooving the back cocpit back by 300 and ading 4% depth but no extra with and im contemplating a ruder to , just to make the sailing easier. the F1 sails realy well for a non ruder non skeg boat.

mick M wrote:Good morning,
Im geting ready to start my F2 , just having trubel geting the gunwalls at a good price and localy , not having much luck.
I like the bow handel, , my design is going to be closer to the F1 , im adding just enuf to bring it to 18ft, mooving the frunt cocpit forword by 300, and mooving the back cocpit back by 300 and ading 4% depth but no extra with and im contemplating a ruder to , just to make the sailing easier. the F1 sails realy well for a non ruder non skeg boat.

I wonder if he got the idea for the bow handle from the old Bering Strait kayaks? Mick, I will be watching your progress with the double with interest. I made a Disko Bay with Brian and was intending to make an F1 but maybe I should try for a double.

Im going to kneed to make another F1, as Lyn has taken an intrest in it, its light, if paddels easily, and it terns a lot beter than eny of the other boats in my shed. I start making the F2 the week after the RnR . I like the handel, and probably will look seriously at incorporating it as well

Hi guys,

Thanks for the interest

The built-in handle is indeed inspired by Alaskan kayaks. I did a bit of a rough job sewing the skin around the edge of it, so it's not as nice to use as it should be. I'll line if with leather when I have some spare $$$.

I'm not certain than a stretch to 18ft would comfortably float two people. My wife and I together weigh 150kg, and the six metre boat floats the two of us quite nicely, and doesn't feel too bulky. I can guarantee that not adding any extra beam at all will be a mistake -- even with 50mm of extra width, I had trouble keeping the middle of the boat pulled in, and it wanted to spring off the ends of the centre deckbeams.

A rudder is a good idea (mine is nearly finished), more for changing direction than keeping course. A boat this long and straight-sided doesn't exactly spin on a dime. I may have been heard to utter the words "supertanker" while trying to make sharp turns. In the same vein, don't be afraid to trim back the stern a bit to make a looser shape.

The willow ribs were an interesting experiment. I may use them again, depending on what I'm trying to achieve. If you're all set up for bamboo ribs, go that way. I doubt there's any functional difference, but you'll probably get the ribbing done faster.

I'm very pleased with this boat, and I'm more than happy to attribute its better qualities to the Cape Falcon DNA. Having said that, I'm careful about making reference to the F1 when I talk about my double: it's NOT an F1, and I could understand Brian getting a bit upset if people start waving his boat names around the place.

Any more questions, please ask. I can give you more details on the hull shape if you want.

Regards,
Chris Longson

Good morning,
Iv started my F2 , iv riped the gunnals and stringers, next im scrounging wood for the deck beams, hopfuly il start mortising the gunals this sunday. Iv stayed with 18 ' and im adding extra volume to it by lengthaning the ribs and adding a cupal of inchas to the beem , It still needs to be short for eas of youse, and im going to set it up to take a ruder for sails. I dont think it will need it for terning as the F1 lean ters so well Im thinking it will have the same atrabutes, time will tell
Chris what did you yous to coat the skin in ?

Hi Mick,

I did the skin with Wattyl Estapol "Moisture Cure" varnish. It's supposed to be the toughest single-pack varnish around, and still cheaper than marine varnishes. Seems to be holding up OK, but I won't be able to recommend it 100% until I've used the boat a bit more. Two litres did almost three coats. It goes off after three days once you open the can, but the recoat times on porous fabric are probably shorter than what it says on the tin, so you'd probably get away with buying a 4-litre tin and doing 3-4 coats over a weekend.

I think you're in for a shock on the turning front. Edging a double to turn it is fiddly and requires a lot of co-ordination, and bear in mind that the boat will be a lot heavier, and have straighter lines (longer keel, etc) than a single. Ours edges nicely when it's riding a wave, but doing a 180 degree turn on flat water takes quite a while...

I know what you mean about shorter being easier: I chopped the gunwales off at 6m sharp for that very reason. Anything longer than that is getting to be a real hassle to put on roofracks or store.

About the cockpit placement: relative to an F1, I moved the front cockpit 100mm closer to the bow, and the rear cockpit 200mm closer to the stern. That gave me 2m cockpit spacing, which is pretty good. You've got less length to play with, but I'd be wary of moving the front cockpit forward as much as you're suggesting. Maybe put up with a little less spacing between the cockpits instead? I put the widest point about 300mm forward of the second cockpit, to keep the "swedeform" shape. Are your two normal paddlers fairly similar in weight?

I forget how much extra depth I added -- basically to scale with the extra 50mm beam, although I tried for a slightly deeper vee in the middle of the boat so it wouldn't be pushed around by waves. The difference was pretty subtle and I haven't actually measured to see if I succeeded, now that the skin is on.

Cheers,
Chris

Actually, be careful with the Estapol: I've found some places where the first coat didn't penetrate the weave of the nylon. I might re-apply it on those places with a thinned coat first.

Chris