Here is a step-by-step overview of the process of building
a strip kayak. The numbers following each step are pages numbers
where the step is described in more detail. While building a
kayak may at first appear to be a big task, it can easily be
broken down into a series of small manageable tasks. None of
these steps are beyond the capability of the average person who
has ever wielded modest hand tools.
Getting Ready
1. Cut 1/4" strips off a 3/4" cedar, redwood or
pine plank.
2. Optional: Mill a "cove"
and "bead" on each edge of the strips.
3. Obtain a fairly straight 2 x 4.
4. Draw out the building forms at full size.
5. Glue the drawings to a sheet of plywood (or particle board).
6. Cut out the forms from the plywood.
7. Thread the forms on
to the 2 x 4.
8. Check alignment of the
forms and secure them
in place.
Stripping the Boat.
9. With the boat upside-down, staple
a strip along the sheerline.
10. Double check the alignment of the first strip.
11. Trim the ends of the
strip.
12. Repeat steps 11 and 12 on the other side.
13. Apply carpenter's glue to the top of the strip installed
in the previous step.
14. Install a strip on the glue and staple
tightly it in place.
15. Trim the ends of this strip and install a strip on the
other side.
16. Repeat steps 13 through 15 until the strips have extended
up the side and just start covering the bottom.
17. Install strips down either side of the keel, tapering
the ends to fit the existing strips.
18. Fit strips into the
remaining gaps. Alternate between strips following the sheerline and strips
following the keel line.
19. Flip the boat over into a cradle.
20. Install the first deck strip next to the first hull strip.
Do not glue this strip to the hull, just staple it in place.
21. Install strips on either side of the centerline in a similar
manner to step 17.
22. Strip in the rest
of the deck in a similar manner to step 18. Do not strip all the way over
the cockpit.
23. Remove all the staples
from the deck and hull.
24. Cut out the cockpit
hole.
25. Install the coaming
strips.
26. Scrape off any
glue drips.
27. Plane the wood fair and
smooth.
28. Sand the wood smoother.
Fiberglassing
29. Temporarily remove the deck from the forms.
30. With the hull side up, drape
fiberglass over it.
31. Trim the fiberglass
close to the sheer line.
32. Smooth the fiberglass with a brush.
33. Mix up a small amount of resin.
34. Pour the resin onto the middle of the hull and spread it with a squeegee.
35. Mix more resin and spread as needed. Use a brush to apply resin to dry
spots.
36. Scrape off the excess resin with the squeegee.
37. Let the resin partially cure.
38. Apply fill coat of
resin to the whole
surface and let it cure.
39. Remove the hull from the forms and return the deck to the forms.
40. Repeat steps 30 through 39 for the deck.
41. Plane and sand the inside of the hull.
42. Fiberglass and resin the inside as you did the outside.
43. Trim off the
bottom of the coaming inside the deck.
44. Plane, sand and fiberglass the inside of the deck.
45. Glue multiple laminations
of hardwood around the coaming to create the lip.
46. Cut of the excess
coaming above the lip, and sand smooth.
47. Install the cheek plates on the inside of the cockpit.
48. Fiberglass over the coaming lip.
49. Roughen the cured resin along the sheer line of the deck and hull with
sandpaper.
50. Align the deck and hull together, securing
with packing tape as you go.
51. Turn the boat
onto one side and measure out some fiberglass tape for the inside seam.
52. Soak the tape in resin until it is completely saturated and then squeeze
out excess.
53. Roll tape along the inside seam as far as you can reach by hand and push
it the rest of the way with a stick.
54. Smooth the inside
seam with a brush
on the end of the stick.
55. After the first side cures repeat steps 51 through 54 for the other side.
56. Remove the packing tape on the outside.
57. Sand the outside seam smooth.
58. Lay fiberglass tape on the outside
seam and resin it in place.
Finishing the boat
59. Drill holes to install footbraces
60. Sand the outside of the whole boat with 80 grit sand paper.
61. Apply an additional fill coat of resin in two stages to
cover the deck and hull.
62. Sand with progressively finer paper up to 220 grit. Repeat
step 61 if necessary.
63. With the boat
on end, pour a small amount of filled resin into each end.
64. Varnish the boat.
65. Sand with fine sandpaper.
66. Repeat 64 and 65 until bored.
67. Install the seat, backrest, footbraces and other outfitting.
68. Find a suitable body of water
69. Paddle.
70. Repeat steps 68 and 69 until you're ready to build another.
71. Go back to step 1
I rarely build a kayak the same way twice, so it would be
a lot for me to ask of you to follow this schedule to the letter.
Use it as a basis for determining your up coming tasks. Don't
get hung up on fears that taking some of the steps out of order
will ruin the boat. With my first boat I was so impatient that
I put the boat in the water (step 70) before I installed the
cockpit coaming (step 25). Obviously, I had to rearrange the
steps a bit, and I may have made my task more difficult in the
end, but the boat came out great.
Strip-building
is the art of taking a stack of small strips of wood and converting it into
a beautiful and durable water craft. This process has been a popular
method of making canoes for years. It is easily within the means of the average
do-it-yourselfer. It does not require a large investment in specialized tools
or a long apprenticeship to achieve a beautiful
result.
I have been paddling since I was a kid. Mainly in my parents
canoe and a kayak my father had made from a kit. When I got out
of college, I wanted a boat of my own. I had read about the idea
of a "sea kayak", but had never seen one. It sounded
like the ideal vessel. It combined the fun of my father's little
kayak with the place I best enjoyed paddling. The problem was,
being a typical college student, I didn't have enough money to
buy one.
A couple years previously, my father bought a book, Building a Strip Canoe, by Gil Gilpatrick,
and I helped my brother build a canoe from this book. I figured that I could
probably make a decent kayak using this the strip method. I researched everything
I could find out about sea kayaks and thought about what I wanted to be doing
on the water. Then, on the floor of my parents dining room, I drew up a kayak.
This kayak took form in the basement of my brothers house. With couple trips
out on the waters of the Maine coast, I was hooked. My brother tried it and
he was hooked. He took my forms and built a kayak of his own. His friend tried
it and was soon building one of his own as well.
From that beginning I learned about sea kayaking. My growing
kayaking skills, the inevitable flaws in any first boat and the
fun I had building the boat, incited an urge to build another
kayak. I am now deeply addicted to both sea kayaking and kayak
building.
I build my own boats to use "hard". I want a kayak
that performs well in a wide variety of conditions from backwaters
to surf. I have refined my designs to the highest performance
standards. I include three
designs in this book.
For the beginner I have a design that has served me well for
ten years. This is a stable,
comfortable, easy-to-build kayak. Due to the simplicity of
the lines, this design can be adapted from a small
paddle boat to a roomy
two-person kayak.
The second boat is a high
performance design suitable for intermediate and skilled
kayakers wanting a boat for day use and overnight trips. This
design provides the builder more of a challenge than the first
kayak. Influenced by the kayaks of Greenland, this boat would
look good when made of plastic and painted white, but is spectacular
when made of wood.
Many builders want a boat they can share with a friend. The
third boat fills this desire. Based on the high performance lines
of the second design, this boat is a comfortable
tandem.
The body of the book is a comprehensive description
of the building process. Books that leave out crucial details
can be very frustrating. It is my intention to help a complete
novice construct a finished kayak after reading nothing but my
book. I describe alternate methods for builders who feel the
initial description is beyond their ability and urge the experimenter
to take risks. It is important to describe why a step is performed
a certain way so the builder can make an educated choice.
An large part of the fun of building kayak with wood is the
beauty of the finished product. The wood alone is beautiful.
The thin flexible strips provide a unique medium for getting
creative. With the natural contrasts available in wood the
builder has the opportunity to enhance the design of the kayak
beyond the inherent grace and style of a kayak built of wood.
I offer techniques to get the builder with an artistic bent started
on making a kayak that is more than just a nice boat.
I include a discussion of the design considerations required
to choose the right kayak either from my designs in this book
or from other sources. I do not dwell on technical terms but
give practical advice on what the builder should look for.
The tools required to strip build a kayak are basic. Many
of the tools are commonly found in the do-it-yourselfer's toolbox.
Selection of the right tools will ease the building process.
I discuss what is important to look for when selecting new tools
and how to get the most out of tools the reader already has.
One of the most difficult tasks when building a boat is finding
sources of the specialized materials.
The materials are not hard to get when you know where to look.
I provide a list of reliable sources and offer suggestions on
where too look for other suppliers.
I urge builders not to sweat the details. The reason to build
the boat is to get out on the water. I am addicted to building
boats and paddling the boats I build. I want to spread the disease.
Strip-building - assembling a pile of thin wood strips into
a functional hull - has been a popular canoe-building method for many years.
Now boatbuilder Nick Schade, an engineer by training
and a self-professed sea kayaking addict, has refined this time-tested method
to build the more complex shapes of sea kayaks. The method is simple, forgiving,
allows a liberal amount of design flexibility, and requires a minimum number
of tools. Its also relatively inexpensive: about $400 to $500 for one of the
designs discussed here--one-quarter the price of a factory-built model. In The
Strip-Built Sea Kayak, Schade presents full plans for three elegant
designs inspired by the grace and seaworthiness of the Inuit and Aleut skin
boats. Profusely illustrated instructions provide the details that will guide
you through the process. A complete novice will be able to construct a finished
kayak after reading nothing but this book. And for an experienced builder, the
techniques here can be expanded to create the perfect boat for you.
This is the Table of Contents for the book The Strip-Built
Sea Kayak. The links lead to supplemental information on the subjects.
This page will include any updates or corrections to the information
in the book. If you see any mistakes in the book, please let me
know at Email Nick Schade.
The first printing had some small errors in the offsets for the Guillemot.
There are a couple whacky numbers in the Keel row of the Buttocks numbers: These
errors only show up in the first printing, if you purchased your book recently
you should not need to make any changes.
|
Long Position (ft) |
1/2 |
16 |
16 1/2 |
|
Keel |
5.85 |
0.83 |
3.32 |
These corrections show up as yellow and red below.
