ETIENNE MULLER'S BOAT BUILDING
- Choosing the right boat for you -

THIS PAGE SHOULD PRINT VERY WELL
Click here for different building methods
Some thoughts on design. If you are about to spend months building a boat you want to choose the right one. Consider where you will use it and consider your size and weight. See below about volume.

Building your own is a very good way to get a brand new quality custom boat (for not too much money) that draws a lot attention. Especially the plywood boats which come in at between 250 and 400 euro for materials depending on the design and construction method. The single chine and tortured ply boats can also be extremely light weight. I can carry two down the beach (by the cockpit coaming, one in each hand) without breaking a sweat.

I have found, while touring in groups, or alone over distances, that variations in hull-form affect stability far more than they affect speed. Unless one is entering a race, where absolute-hull-speed may become an issue, the differences in effort to speed ratios of genuine sea-kayaks at touring speeds are really not that great.

A little more or less rocker, length, V, or beam, will effect the tracking, turning and stability of the boat far more than they will the speed. At touring speeds a couple of minutes in the hour may be all the difference between one boat and another of quite differing shapes and behavior. The length of your paddle and shape of the blade, your posture and cadence and the refinement of your stroke, relaxed adaptation to the sea state and taking proper advantage of following seas, may make a far more marked difference to your speed and apparent stamina over long distances than simply changing boats.

In fact I have noticed at times that people in 'faster' boats, when they encounter rough conditions, can get tense, and may end up expending valuable energy in apprehension. They may also be less willing to stop to enjoy the view, take a photo, or wait for back-markers (in a narrow boat movement equals balance).

My beautiful speed machine gets far less time on the water than any of my other boats. I hardly ever use it while out alone and when I am using it in a group I have to wait around anyway for people to catch up. In rough conditions this is not always comfortable.

If one is out on one's own, as I often am, then a boat in which one feels really confident, and which you know will see you comfortably through an unexpected rough patch, allows one to explore more widely and stay more relaxed.

With this in mind I have come to believe that a sea-kayak that "fits" is crucial when choosing a design. What this boils down to is "getting the volume right". If the paddler is too heavy or too light or too tall or too short for the boat it will not behave in the way it is designed to. Actually this goes for paddles too. A longer or more buoyant boat will require a longer paddle, which a smaller, slighter person will find requires more leverage than they are built to exert easily.

Finally I should mention that, though I have paddled on and off all my life, I have only paddled commercially manufactured sea-kayaks twice in my entire life for perhaps 10 minutes in calm conditions, and one was a low volume affair that I could barely squeeze into. So I have absolutely no common yardstick against which to measure my home made boats. My first love when younger was always windsurfing and I doubt I would have maintained the kayaking interest if it were not that I loved the sensation so much of being at sea in a vessel I had built myself. I am still using boats that I built thirty years ago. Over the years one looks for a greater challenge and the designs one tackles become more sophisticated, but the feeling stays the same. I still windsurf, but as I get older I seem to appreciate the benefits a more sedate pace has to offer. I am probably becoming an old codger. Recently I was fortunate to find myself outside Sherkey Island surrounded for about ten minutes by a pod of about thirty exuberant jumping and circling dolphins, including mothers and babies, many of them passing within reach of a paddle blade. How many people experience a moment like that, ever?

HOME