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She paddles
beautifully — fast and straight — and goes where I point her, even in
20 to 30 knot winds. Primary stability is responsive while secondary stability
is good due to the flared hull. Very quiet and efficient to paddle. Other
gurgle and splash at cruising speed, but the Expedition just slips through
the water. I’ve been able to average between 5 and 5.5 knots over a two-hour
out-and-back trip on Eklutna Lake. The only downside to the Expedition
is slow turning, a necessary tradeoff for great tracking. A few construction
notes: Length is 95% of design (Vaclav had some very helpful scaling hints).
Final weight is 48 lbs, a bit on the heavy side for a standard lay-up
because I needed extra epoxy to fill some ripples in the bottom. Hull
is western red cedar, deck is yellow cedar and redwood. Stripping the
pinched keel would have been impossible without Vaclav’s separately stripped
inset. This also eliminated all but one double-mitered strip. Hatches
are internally secured via a cable anchored in the cockpit...The plans
are well thought-out – the multiple sets of reference lines on each form
were invaluable in achieving accurate alignment on the spine. Thank you
for the link to your scaling page...
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