Kayak Building Reports

Information about making sea kayaks and other boats

This page is painfully old. It was started in 1994 and was probably last seriously updated in 2000. There are still some good links here along with many broken ones, but it is primarily here for historical purposes.

For more up to date information please visit my Boatbuilding Pages and the Kayak Forum.

This page started out as a collection of information about building boats. It has since evolved to have an emphasis on building wooden kayaks. If you are interested in how to build a kayak, this is the place to bookmark. There is information here about all different methods of making sea kayaks including: strip-built (or wood strip, cedar strip, etc.); stitch-and-glue (or tack-and-tape); traditional (or skin-on-frame, wood and canvas); and some others. I hope you find what you need. I'm always looking for more information to add. If you are building a boat, keep a journal. It may find a home here.

Building Kayaks

• My new SEE-Kayak directory has a section for kayak building resources. Please feel free to add your site.
• Information about my Guillemot Kayak designs. Now including secure online ordering of plans.
• Why Build a Wooden Kayak Reasons to choose wood for your next kayak, and reasons to avoid the attempt.
• My book about how to make a kayak: "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak" is here.
• If you have questions, ideas or just want to talk about kayak building go to the Kayak Forum for discussion of kayaking construction.
• If you are a kayak builder and you have a web site, consider linking it to the Kayak Builder's Web Ring. If you are interested in seeing what other kayak builders are up to the Web Ring is a good place to look.
• Kayak Building Notes describing some ideas about building strip kayaks.
• Tom Yost has put together a comprehensive manual for building skin on frame and folding kayaks with aluminum tubing.
• The late Bart Hauthaway was a renowned paddler and kayak designer. I've put together an album of some of his work.
• Sam Mcfadden did some strength testing of a variety of strip-built panels. If you want more information for choosing different layups this data is interesting.
• I'm putting together some pages on kayak design.
• John Coppens has a nice set of pages describing the construction of one of my stitch and glue kayaks.
• I wrote up a brief description of how I installed a rudder on one of my kayaks.
• I'm building a skin-on-frame "greenland" style kayak and have posted pictures of the process of steaming and installing ribs.
• Free Plans for a strip-built Aleut style "baidarka"
• All the old discussions from the kayak building bulletin board are now available in the Kayak Building Old Message Archive.
• I've organized some reports and pictures of building strip kayaks under one page. You will find there a running photo journal of a kayak I built.
• If you can read Swedish you can check out Emil Kellander report on building the Expedition Single. Even if you can't it is worth checking out the pictures. Click on "byggdagbok".
• David Hazen has a good boat builders pep talk for those who are nervous about the idea of building their own kayak.
• Rick Rubio and Jim Gabriel have started a kayak builders resource page. It has reviews of designs, building techniques, and other good stuff.
• Friedrich Vetterlein sent me a great article about building a flexible baidarka.
• Ross Leidy has made some beautiful boats including a Guillemot. He has articles about roof rack cradles for his kayaks, and flush hatches.
• Shawn Baker builds a Guillemot and a CLC kayak. Also good info about making paddles, spray skirts, and assorted other kayaking things.
• Kent LeBoutilier has put together a good set of pages about doing some great artistic stripping and a variety of other interesting projects.
• John Sweet put together a description of how you go about building a fiberglass boat from scratch: plug-to-mold-to-boat. He also has some good information about the fabrics typically used in canoe and kayak constrution such as Kevlar and fiberglass.
• I've written up a brief description of the wood used in strip building.
• I have put together a bibliography/bookstore of books related to kayak building. You can now purchase the books from Amazon.com directly from the bibliography.
• I also put together a list of basic kayak building tools which can be purchased through Amazon.
• I built a kayak for Sea Kayaker magazine. Here are a series of photos showing the strip-building process.
• I like to get artistic when building my kayaks. Here are some pictures of how I do it.
• Michael Stocks has put together a page about building his Guillemot.
• In 1995 I launched a Stitch and Glue kayak. The FREE plans are available to download.
• Julio MacWilliams built the above Stitch and Glue as a wood and canvas.
• Matthew Bastian built a canvas covered kayak based on some old Dutch plans.
• Niels Henrisken has collected a bunch of newsgroup postings into a form of FAQ about strip-building. The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association also has a similar collection here.
• Hendrik Maroske has put together a vast set of pages about baidarkas. Lots of pictures.
• Bill and Ted had an excellent adventure building a pair of Chesapeake Light Craft kayaks.
• Tom Clarke's thoughts on building a Baidarka with pictures.
• Bill Low of Willow Kayaks has a good page about covering a skin-on-frame kayak with polyester cloth.
• Craig Kelford has put together a baidarka "Builders Manual"
• Doug Garmon has free offsets for a wooden kayak.
• Jay Babina describes strip-building his "Outer Islander".
• Paul "WA1URB" shows some of his techniques for building a skin on frame kayak.
• Chris Kulczycki of Chesapeake Light Craft answers the question "why wood?" in the pages of Atlantic Coastal Kayaker.
• Wave~Length magazine has a good article on building a strip-kayak. Also look at the archive of the wave~length discussion group.
• Rob Macks of Laughing Loon Canoes and Kayaks makes wooden kayaks and has put together a page of strip-building shop tips.
• Pete Ford has a nice series of pages about the construction of one of Rob Macks' Georgian Bay sea kayaks. Check out the movies.
• Someone building "baidarka" style kayaks.
• Someone else building a cedar strip kayak.
• Ray Jardine has a nice set of pictures of building a carbon fiber double kayak.
• Steve and Sheryl build a stitch and glue kayak.
• If you want to make a kayak on the cheap, check this out.
• Jim Coburn has a nice series of pages showing the steps in building a Greenland style skin-on-frame kayak.
• John Winter has some cedar-strip canoe and kayak designs. Also look at his technical design information. His designs are also available through Green Valley Boats which has some good strip-building hints.
• John Prazak has some information about stitch and glue construction.
• My brother Eric describes the building of his stitch and glue Greenland style Merganser.
• A couple of guys spend their vacation with Bruce Lemon building a baidarka.
• Home Grown Boats has a video available about building strip kayaks.
• A new, incomplete site devoted to Wooden Kayaks.
• Bobby Curtis has a good set of pages about building a stitch and glue kayak.
• Search this web site.

Building Paddles

• Doug Alderson was nice enough to let me publish his discussion of paddle sizing and building.
• George Ellis wrote up instructions for a Greenland style kayak paddle.
• Measurements and drawings of paddles from Greenland as collected by Gail Ferris.
• The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association has good information including a nice description of making a canoe paddle.
• Lightning Paddles has good information about paddle design.
• Information on Greenland paddling techniques.

Bulletin Boards, Newsgroups and Listservers

• Kayak building techniques bulletin board from Guillemot Kayaks
• Wood canoes bulletin board from Wooden Canoe Heritage Association
• WoodenBoat magazine has a Boat Building Forum.
• Bear Mt. Boats has a Message Board.
• For general boat building try rec.boats.building.
• Much of the traffic from wave~length has moved to Paddlewise.
• For skin on frame or "Baidarka" building subscribe at <baidarka-request@lists.intelenet.net> . There is an archive of the list at: Baidarka Mailing List Archive

Building Other Boats

• Building my raft Triceratops
• A home built boat worthy of note is Matt Layden's Paradox
• Jacques Mertens has a server with free plans
• Barry Anspach has some nice pictures of boats he has built.
• The Boat Builders Place has a primer for the stitch and glue process.
• Of interest to all boat builders "Messing about in Boats" is now on-line.

Etc...

• A description of stitch-and-glue and strip-building techniques
• A list of sources for kayak kits and plans
• An excellent list of sources for shipwrights (this includes list of kayak stuff above, but it is excellent even without it).
• WoodenBoat Magazine is one of the best resources for any kind of boat building.
• A good listing of information about all kinds of boat building is available at the Boatbuilding Community.
• The Canadian Canoe Museum has information about canoes and kayaks.

etc...

• An interesting page about Kevlar.
• The Composite Fabricators Association has some interesting technical information about reinforcing fabrics such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, Kevlar, and Spectra.
• MAS has information about their epoxy, as do Gougeon Brothers (West System) and System Three.
• Pages and a book about Marine Composites.
• MacNaugton Associates has scantlings information for building boats with wood.

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