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Nice job on the bullet, John. The Ridgid sander will definitely make things easier. I have a 12" JET disc sander and I wouldn't be without it. Another must-have tool in my shop is my 14" band saw. If you don't want to buy new, check your local ads and garage/estate sales. You can find some real barg...

We used the Teleflex "Safety QC" system on our Zip. It does not have the no-feedback feature, but on a lower-powered boat such as the Zip (40 HP) I don't think it's really needed. When we had a 48" skeg under the boat, there was very little feel to the steering, and when I replaced the skeg with a f...

We built our Zip in a one-car carport, with the fixture bonded to the concrete floor, and this didn't really present any problems. When I built two Can-Yaks in my one-car condo garage that also stores my power tools, things got much tighter. At any given time, one boat would occupy my living room wh...

I had a very nice email conversation with Al Neill some years ago, and he's a really nice guy. At the time I was considering an Audeen or Mist Miss (essentially a stretched Audeen), and he was able to offer up a couple of pointers. Al's boat has a Ford 302 for power, and he said that Ford marine par...

The weight of the Flying Saucer is listed as 190lbs and the Zip is 375lbs. I wonder why the Zip is almost twice the weight and is only 2’ longer? I don't think the bare hull of the Zip is anywhere near 375 lbs. When we completed the bare hull--fully decked and painted, but no seats, etc.--two of us...

This may be coming your way but as of this year in Nh plugs have to be pulled and bilge dry before you can leave the ramp That's not nearly as bad as we've had things in California, where most lakes require everything to be dry before launching. Wash your boat, or take a "bucket cruise" in the driv...

Curt, I wouldn't sweat the size of the cockpit too much. Even with the full-length cockpit, the 14-foot Can-Yak is pretty cramped for two people, and if they're full-sized adults you won't have much freeboard above the waterline. You probably know this, but with one person aboard you have a ton of r...

You numbers pretty much reflect ours. With the 10"-pitch prop I usually see 29 mph at 5,500 rpm. The 11" prop reduces the rpm to about 5000 with little to no change in maximum speed. It should be noted that our Mk 55 has never been apart, so your newly overhauled motor should have a performance edge...

From your description, your Zip is virtually identical to ours, right down to the Mk 55E. As Chris mentioned, it's possible that your prop is slipping on the hub. Out of curiosity, what prop are you running? We found that a 10" pitch, two-blade prop would give us ~30 MPH @ 5500 RPM, and with none of...

Congrats on the launch! Your boat looks great. The Can Yak is a little tender around center, but you will get used to it. They're pretty stable on the water. When paddling solo, they seem to perform best if you're all the way aft in the cockpit. I did add the 1" skeg to the boats, but these will hav...

I had the same problem with some beautiful 5/4 African mahogany I bought for a coffee table. It's beautiful wood, but it has a ton of internal stresses. I was able to save the project only after I resawed and planed the wood into 1/4"-thick planks, and laminated them to a 3/4" MDF core. Honduran mah...

I would get all the planking installed before making plans to create a transom on one end of your CanYak. Chances are, the problem you describe isn't all that bad, and could probably be corrected with some filler. Once fiberglassed and painted, your sins will no longer be visible. You don't want a r...

Christopher, gluing everything together and encapsulating the bits at the same time is like trying to glue two sticks of butter together. I get all the pieces (frames, stems, etc.) glued together and cured, and then encapsulate. When encapsulating, I brush the epoxy onto the wood and then wipe away ...

Greg, I don't have my Zip plans in front of me, but my memory says that the dimension from Frame 2 to the top of the transom is not shown, but I just went out to my Zip in the garage and the dimension you requested is 51-3/8 inches, as measured from the aft face of the frame to the outside of the tr...

I'm with Gayle on this one for sure. It's a boat. If it was perfect, it would not be a boat! Boat and perfect don't belong in the same sentence. We have a few people who are close. But, even they have a few skeletons in the closet. Bill It's not how many skeletons you have, but how well you hide th...