Re: Plans vs. kit

Posted by Andrew Sommer on Sep 11, 2006

Jack has a very good point. There is nothing like quality parts pre cut. You will KNOW its cut right and CLC is the best there is. Heck they even offer an alternative with the wood only kits

That said, Randy's previous experience should serve him well. My motivation to go with plans was simply cost as well. My wood working experiences have come from building dozens of high performance Radio Controlled Aircraft from scratch which were more complicated then a kayak and with more critcal tolerences. Old time R/C model builders have used compositslike fiberglass and wood since the early 70s. So far things have gone well and I've been follow Chris Kulczycki's method in his book "The New Kayak Shop" Its been very rewarding to do everthing from scratch. Research aside it took me only 5 labor extra hours to get my wood cut scarfed and the various pieces cut out bringing me to the point of having a kit ready to assemble.

If you don't have the tools needed to do the construction you'll need to budget for those as well.

I have to agree with Dave the CLC sponsoring this forum and making plans available is very cool. A benifit to the whole industry. They understand that there are going to be rank beginners all the way to those who want to do everything for themselves.

I'd say go for it Randy!

In Response to: Re: Plans vs. kit by Jack on Sep 11, 2006

Replies:

• Re: Plans vs. kit by Alan Speakman on Sep 12, 2006
  • Re: Plans vs. kit by Steve Miller on Sep 12, 2006
  • Re: Plans vs. kit by CLC on Sep 12, 2006
    • Re: Plans vs. kit by Alan Speakman on Sep 12, 2006