In 2000 I built my second kayak, for my son Joe who was 6 at the time. It was an experimental variation of a skin on frame boat, using fiberglass draped unsupported on the wooden frame as the skin. It sort of worked. Here is a blog of the initial build:
Joe used it until he outgrew the cockpit sometime around 2005 or 2006. Also, the unsupported skin, though exceptionally light and strong in tension was very weak in sheer.
Story:
We were visiting family down in Coos Bay sometime around 2004. We took the kayaks. We did, at one point, put the boats in at Sunset Bay, in the Ocean and actually surfed waves into shore. Way fun! But this day we were puttering around the Empire Lakes, near SW Oregon Community College. I set Joe's boat down on the relatively sandy shore but there were a few marble-sized pellets. I put Joe in the boat on the shore before pushing out into the lake. He had only gone 29 yards when he said that the boat had some water in it. I told him not to worry because all the boats leaked a bit. He said "no, this is a lot of water."
When he came back in we found a couple inches of water and a nickel-sized hole where a pebble had punched right through the skin. We searched the van for some duct tape but came up with only chewing gum. Two pieces sufficed to get joe back on the water and the fix survived the rest of the trip.
So when it came time to rebuild the boat I opted for cardboard-backed fiberglass skin, like I'd been using on all the boats since. I also enlarged the cockpit and widened the beam from 17 in to 19. It was a bit too tippy as originally built, though the kids seemed to handle it fine. Oh, I also sealed the bulkheads, added hatches and filled the peaks with pourable, form-fitting closed cell foam. A real expedition boat.
That worked fine until Joe outgrew that too, about 2009. So I made him another boat to get him through high school. Since I had no use for this boat, I gave it to a friend who had a younger child. He had no indoor place to store it, so it's basically been outside for 5 years, and now his sons, too, have outgrown it.
It just came back to me this week, and as coincidence would have it, I'm building another kayak with a friend right now who has a 9-year old son. So I patched it up, rebuilt the cockpit coaming and floor and patched a couple of holes in the skin. Other than the cockpit the structure was still very strong.
Here it is. Still a nice looking boat. 19" beam. 12'3" length. 27 lb. 2" (or less) draft.
New cockpit coaming and floor. Much simpler, lighter and stronger. Not bad. Only a couple evenings work and the boat should easily last another 5 years.
The old seat cushion still fits fine. It is now a none-standard spray skirt size, but I think a small could be modified to fit. All that remains is for the young man receiving this boat to repaint it and give it a new name.