Been away from the shop for a couple days, but I’m back on the pedal powered canoe project and chewing pretty hard on the seating geometry. My starting point for this is the standard seating geometry from a Hobie mirage because they absolutely nailed the comfort in that boat which is much harder to...
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Video: a scrap wood prototype of the pedal drive box
Today I built a scrap wood prototype of the drive box to adapt the Hobie Mirage Drive to my skin on frame canoes. The first drive is a knock off of Hobie’s first generation Mirage drive called a Freedom Drive which retails for $325 and the second is Hobie’s current Mirage Drive 180 for...
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Testing boats and checking symmetry for the pedal drive adaptation
Today was a little bit of on the water testing, and a lot of frowning while chewing on details. Because I’m using the Mirage drive it made sense to actually try one before I install it, so I met a friend down at the dock to take a spin in his Hobie for a...
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Switching focus to canoes
With Liz working on the plans for the recent kayak design updates, I’m switching gears to focus on canoes. Every year I try to update one of my building courses with the latest modifications and building techniques. This year it’s time for the Skin-on-Frame Canoe Building Course to get some fresh updates. My original...
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First test of the new 250 lb size F1
We had an extremely successful wrap test of the new 250 pound size F1 frame. This version is 15‘8“ long and 25 inches wide (but paddles like it’s 23 because of my hull shape) and the paddler is 6’5” 265 lbs. The extra 15 pounds is useful because it shows me what this kayak...
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Saran wrap testing the new 230lb size LPB kayak
Took the new 230lb size LPB kayak frame down to the water for some shrink wrap testing. I couldn’t get my hands on an appropriately sized paddler for the test so we had to rely on Tom plus some water bags for weight. This is a little risky because there’s no guarantee that the...
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The 230 lb LPB is coming together
I am extremely happy with how the new 230 pound size LPB frame has come together. This version is 23 1/4 inches wide and 17 feet long, although just like all LPB’s it is 1 inch narrower where you actually take the stroke, and that combined with the flared hull makes it functionally equivalent...
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Scaling for the new prototype 230lb LPB
Just finished the scaling for the new prototype 230lb LPB kayak size. I’m not exactly good at math (or thinking) and it’s not as simple as just multiplying all of the measurements by a ratio, so this is always a bit stressful. This time we are going for an exact proportional scale which is...
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And here we go again…
And here we go again… while I wait for a nice day to do a saran wrap test on the 250 pound size F1 prototype frame I’m switching gears and diving into a redesign on the larger sizes of my LPB design, starting with the 225 lb size which is currently 16’-3” long and...
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Timelapse: Steam bending ribs into the new XL kayak
Sound on! Here I’m steam bending ribs into the second kayak in my recent design progression to update the largest sizes of both of my modern kayak designs. This is bend fought me a little bit because I was lazy and I let my rib stock dry out beforehand. A few ribs made it...
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More next steps in the big person kayak evolution
I’m having trouble deciding on the next steps in the big person kayak evolution. I was going to build another 275 pound version, but this time an exact proportional scale of the F1, as opposed to my slightly modified scale that we tested last week. But after seeing the layout for that turn my...
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What’s next for the big guy/gal kayak design
For everyone who is following this project, I want to take a moment to talk about what’s next for the big guy/gal kayak design. I’m happy enough with the trim and the volume for the intended paddler weight of 275lbs that I’m considering putting out a beta version for anyone who wants to be...
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First saran wrap test of the big guy kayak
First saran wrap test of the big guy kayak prototype. Brian is 6’2” and 265lbs which is just 10 pounds lighter than my target weight for with this build. He’s not a super experienced paddler so I couldn’t get nuanced feedback, but a saran wrap boat never paddles the same as a normally skinned...
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Solving a chine height issue on the prototype
I’ve run into a problem I don’t know how to solve on the new kayak prototype, so I thought I would submit the issue to the hive mind of Instagram for consideration: So the new big guy boat needs a slightly taller chine stringer both for skin clearance and stability, but I’m already maxed...
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Photos: Finished frame details for the big guy kayak
Some details on the finished frame for the big guy (or gal) kayak prototype. I’m probably somewhere around 30 hours into the project here. Next I wait a couple days for the oil to dry, wrap in plastic and hopefully do a float test! ___ This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed....
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