Choosing a Design

You are interested in building. You have browsed through hundreds of sites and seen some amazing works of art. Now is the time to build, but build what? Choosing the type of kayak is one of the hardest things in building. There are many factors to take into account before you send away and order the plans.

What do you want to use the kayak for?

Like all sports, kayaking is increasingly being split up into different areas of expertise.
The main ones for home built kayaks are:

This list can be split up even further. To start choosing a particular design you first have to decide why you go kayaking. No single design can cover any 2 of the above without compromising on some aspect of performance.

An example of this is the difference between a day kayak and a touring kayak. When day paddling you want a fair amount of maneuverability for playing in rock gardens, chop and boat wakes etc. You also only need room for a few dry bags. With a touring kayak you want a design that tracks well, is fast for efficient paddling and with enough storage to take a few luxuries when camping. You would think that these two designs are not compatible, yet most commercially made sea kayaks are a compromise between the two. With a home made kayak you have a choice whether to make this compromise or not and if so, to what degree.

Building Techniques

There is also the choice of what sort of building technique to use. When deciding on how to build, think of how much time you have available, what you can afford (although the expense can be spread over the time spent building), what the kayak will be used for, and finally - what you want the completed boat to look like. The three main building techniques are:

Stitch and Glue

These kayaks use plywood in their construction. With the most common form of S&G the ply is cut into panels then stitched together with hundreds of small twists of copper wire. The shape of the panels determine the form of the kayak. The joins between the copper wire are then glued with epoxy, the wire is removed and a layer of fiberglass is added to the outside of the hull (sometimes the inside as well). Another form is called tortured ply. With this method the ply is bent during the building process to form the hull shape. The panel method of S&G produces hard or multi-chine hulls, the tortured process produces round hulls.

Sources of Information :

Strip Built Kayak

With this method of construction you can make a kayak that is a true work of art. The process involves mounting forms (cross section templates) on a strong back then covering the forms with thin strips of wood. The hull and deck are then covered with fiberglass inside and out, and joined together. Different varieties and colour co-ordinations of wood can be used to create designs that could never be duplicated by commercial kayak manufacturers. This technique produces rounded or semi-hard chined hulls.

Sources of Information:

Skin On Frame (SOF)

At first glance you would be forgiven for wondering how these kayaks float, let alone considered high performance water crafts. Flimsy frames covered with canvas may not sound sea worthy yet SOF designs are currently being made from plans hundreds of years old. The astounding reason behind this is that these old plans produce kayaks which are strong, fast and highly customised to the individual. The Inuit and Aleut population made these crafts not because of a lack of materials (there was plenty wood available in the form of driftwood) but because they recognised the sea worthy characteristics of a flexible hull.

Nowadays seal skin has been replaced by canvas, nylon and other synthetics. Frames are made from wood, aluminum or kevlar and carbon fiber. The main building method has remained unchanged and, for customised kayaks, the measurements for the plans are still taken from various parts of the users body.

Essentially skin on frame kayaks are made by first tying or doweling the frame together to allow for flex, then covering the frame with the chosen material. Lastly the "cloth" is coated with a waterproofing agent (normally paint or varnish).

Sources of Information:

Design Reviews and Builders Gallery:

KASK Rotorua Lakes Symposium 2003 An amazing 18% of the kayaks present where home built. Check some of them out here.

	Kayak	Designed by	Built and Reviewed by
	Merganser 18	Eric Schade - Shearwater Boats	DonWelsby
	West River 180	Chris Kulczycki - CLC Kayaks	Grant Glazer
	Walrus 17	George Putz	Bill Chelley
	Celeste	Renton Hunger	Renton Hunger
	Mac50	Sandy Ferguson	Steve Dorrington
	Mac50	Sandy Ferguson	Neville Perrie
	Chucky I, II & III	Red Fish Kayaks, Graeme Bruce, & Renton Hunger	Graeme Bruce
	Ply Racing Dble	Brad Hayes	Brad Hayes
	Night Heron	Guillemot Kayaks	Grant Glazer

For more information on designs that have been built in NZ, post a question on the:
NZ Kayak Builders E-Goup

E-Mail Web Designer Grant Glazer