Let’s talk about the next steps for the drive canoe:
Right now the plan is to spend the next two weeks testing and upgrading the prototype with and without the drive installed. I need to purchase the Hobie reversible drive with turbo fins to try both of those features and modify the drive box if necessary. Right now steering is accomplished by pulling on strings, which is clearly unacceptable so I need to design a single handle steering system, the same as every other pedal drive kayak. I also need to make some final decisions on the rudder. I need to do some work on the seat design and also the drive box to see if I can make this whole thing a couple pounds lighter. I also need to improve the drive box building process, so it doesn’t take longer than building the actual canoe this time!
If all goes well with all of that then in the beginning of July, I am going to start working on the second prototype, (likely a tandem canoe this time) and we will use that one to draft the plans, shoot the instructional videos, and make some other updates to the canoe building course.
Total I would expect this process to take about a month, and then we will do a bit of testing on the second prototype, shoot some pretty media to promote it, and then finally make an introduction video to the whole system for YouTube.
So tentatively, we are shooting for an August release of the videos and plans for building this thing. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to release this as part of the normal canoe building course or as a separate plan so people who aren’t building my boats can take advantage of it. It’s not a difficult concept once you see how it works but there are many devils in the details and I imagine that many people would prefer just to buy a cheap plan set rather than spending the time to figure this out from scratch.
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