Neither of these were ever in commercial production though quite a few were built privately-John Sweet The original Yugo was designed by Natan Bernot of Yugoslavia [Slovenia] while he was a grad student or post-doc at Penn State in 1962. Dave Kurtz & Co molded the boat as described. There is [was?] a photo of Tom Southworth working on the plug posted on the Concordia web site. I went looking for it and my bookmark for the site is defunct. I think I posted a photo of a Natan C-1, as it was often called, in use at Brandywine. There was also a C-2 version. The second Yugo was designed by Natan after he returned to Yugoslavia. He sent over paper plans and again DK & Co molded it. The original looked a lot like an open canoe with a deck -- flat bottom, flattish sides with a hard chine. The Yugo II was smaller volume and looked a lot more like a modern boat. Well, relatively speaking! Don't forget, a C-1 then had to be 80 cm wide and have ends higher than the center. Both of these boats were originally molded as a single side-half mold. You made two identical halves, flipped one end for end and seamed them along the keel line and the middle of the deck. What a nasty job and the seam in the hull took a beating and broke open fairly often. Later Del Myers and I made a top-bottom mold of the II and a number of these were built around Penn State in the 60s. There is an interesting story about how I got my first mold for this boat but it will have to wait for another time.... I paddled the Yugo I in 1963-65, then built the Yugo II in July 65. I eventually built four of these and paddled them all the way through the 60s, including the 1967 Worlds, the Grand Canyon, and the first Gauley trip in 68.

Dave Guss: The first Yugo C1 built had a 40 # half and a 20# half. It was built in my basement in State College, Pa and took a maiden voyage in Slab Cabin Creek (find that in your guide!)in about a foot of water, duct taped together with no outfitting. The next three were around 35# and were built by and for Tom Southworth, Dave Kurtz and myself. Their debut was at Brandywine. Susan Taft ("the River Chasers") measured and photographed my Yugo I, Yugo II and other relics at my house last summer for an upcoming book.