About 3 years ago, my father built a wood strip Sea Kayak. Watching him do this amazing "from scratch" work, bringing a boat to life from nothing inspired me to build my own.
I did not initially intend to write a build on it, and because of this, I am missing a lot of crutial beginner photo's. But now I will keep on track. This build thread will be short, and not contain vast amounts of information. You will not be able to go out and build a kayak by using this thread, instead it's purpose will be to spark interest.
It all starts with a book, "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak", by author & builder, Nick Shade (
www.guillemot-kayaks.com). There are various types of kayaks of course, white water, tandem, sea, fresh water, play, racing, etc. Many kayaks are built with varying materials from plastic vinyls, wood, carbon fiber, glass, etc. I have been thinking about it for awhile, if I was to build a kayak, what purpose would I use it for? I figured to go for one with good tracking, but still easily maneuverable. I needed something I could explore tight places, coves, shorelines, and so on, but also I would need it to be comfortable for day trips, open and exposed waters, and able to handle larger bodies of water, such as the sea and large bays, where wind, wave and current where not going to push me around like a leaf. It would also have to be capable of a medium speed that would not require vast amounts of energy to maintain. These characteristics are somewhat contradictory in the kayak world.
Usually a long sea kayak would be 17 - 25+ feet. These would be fast, and have a heavy tracking, but maneuverability would be very limited and strenuous in tight places. Not suitable for use in Alberta's rivers.
Shorter kayaks, for rivers and protected, small bodies of water will be shorter, from 8 - 12 -/+ ft. They will not have good tracking, but will be very agile in tight places. Speed is also limited in these shorter boats, and thus not suitable for long trips, or fishing, etc.
I wanted to find a happy medium between these two generic styles, and utilize a bit of both mannerisms. So the kayak I am building is a modified version of Nick Shades "Great Auk", and will come to finished length of 14'2". Just as hard as I wheel my stupid little jeep, this boat will also be treated as such. I intend to use this boat on rivers, bays, lakes and even the ocean off Vancover Island. I have become inspired by the show Survivor Man, and plan to keep survival as a main theme for this kayak. Just as the Survivor Man always starts with a method of transport into the terrain he is destined to become lost in for 7 days, so my kayak will be for me. It's finished design I hope will be able to help me survive the worst situation for at least 7 days or longer. I will explain more on this later.
The kayak will be made from strips of wood, with an exoskeleton of fiber glass, and special marine epoxy. The fiber glass sandwiching the wood acts like an I-beam keeping the structure very strong, light weight and flexable. Unfortunately I am financialy restricted at the moment due to a seperation with my girlfirend, so the wood I had hoped to use at first may now be un attainable due to limited budget. This however, will not keep it any less beautiful or functional. I had hoped to make the hull from Ash, as it provides a very light blonde color and is extreemly durable, and flexable. Also because of my herritage, and its revelence as Yggdrasil, an immense ash tree that Odin was hung from. Only downfall with ash is that it is a bit of the heavy side. Other woods I had planed on using for the deck where Birds Eye Maple, and a dark wood like Black Wood, or a heavily stained cherry. Intead I have to improvise, so I will be using mostly cedars, a white blonde cedar like Northern or Alaskan White Cedar for the hull, and something less expensive for the deck... who knows, this will take a long time, maybe the deck will end up being made from finer exotic woods, as originally planed.
for now here are some pics. wish I had more earlier pictures... this is the skeleton:
This was the older forms from my dads kayak, which we then striped, and replained the strongback which had become weathered.
Here we skip a large amount of work, including all the measurements, cutting and detailing of the new forms, straightening the strong back, etc.. these are some shots of the NEW forms and plained strong back.
here as some pics: (the end of todays labours)
My pops holding a long strip of cedar against the form for a feel of the hulls shape.
The Bow (front) is on the right, the Stern (rear) is to the left
And here is what I do during my kayak breaks, finally got the damn thing together. I call it, the Pile Driver AX-J10
Topic: Kayak Build: the Berserker Vinnland (Read 1087 times)