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> I was looking at the foot brace Nick outlines in his book and I think it
> looks great. I think it'd go really nicely in my Georgian Bay. I am a
> little concerned about the strength though, 'specially since I'm a
> leadfoot, (it's my drag racing heritage I guess) Has anyone built these,
> or can comment on how well they hold up? How about you, Nick? Which would
> you use, your design or "store-bought"?
Nick's brother Eric (http://www.shearwater-boats.com) sells kits for those footbraces, with all the wood pre-cut. I ordered one, $30, built it, and ended up not installing it. It was just too heavy and clunky, so I went with Keepers footbraces mounted on hardwood blocks that were epoxied to the inner hull so as to not have screw heads on the outside of the boat.
If you like the angled surfaces, you can always make a beveled foam block to put up against the footbraces. Kind of like a false foam bulkhead. You can even put a foam bulkhead all the way up against the wood bulkhead, but this limits the kayak to your leg length, so it may not be the way to go if you sometimes have other people paddling your boat.
Dean
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Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
