This page is targeted at the beginner,
and perhaps intermediate Canoe or Kayak builder. It is broken down into
several parts:
- Motivation: Pictures of canoes and kayaks build by others
- building process overviews for Strip and Stitch and Glue
Kayak building techniques
- 2 cent TIPS: Small tips that other builders have 'discovered'
while building their boats.
- Building Diaries
- Other Resources
This page is not intended to be a building instruction manual,
just to help out with some 'extras' that may or may not be in
the book you have. This page only deals with Strip built constuction,
Stich and Glue construction, and hybrids of the two.
I've currently only put up information that I've personally generated
to date, to make this an actually useful page, if you have information
that you would like to see on this page, please feel free to send it to
me at 
you are welcome to send information that would fit in any of the sections,
I'm especially interested in filling in the Tips section.
If you have a diary, but no web host, zip it up and send it, If I have
room I'll put it up for you. It may take some time if I need to convert
If you have it on the Web, then feel free to let me know the link.
There are lots of other kayak and canoe builders out there.
Below is some of the work that has been done, often by first time builders.
for larger pictures just click on the image.
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Builder Location
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Description
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Myrl Tanton, Calgary Canada
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My Frist attempt at building a boat, it is the Huron Cruiser from
the book Canoe Craft. It is a 'plane jane' stripper.
The gunwhales are Ash, the scuppers are cherry, the deck and
yolk is cherry. The seats were meant to be temporary, they are ash,
with the weaving from 30lb Fishing line.
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Myrl Tanton
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My 2nd attempt at building a boat, it is A Hybrid, based on the
free stitch and glue plans from Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks.
The hull is stitch and Glue, the deck has a pattern build into it
with the cedar strips. One of my favorite things about this boat,
is the deck was build from left over fence boards.
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Pete Notmam, New Zeland
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Pete, finished up his guillemot stitch and glue just as I was
trying to deside which I would build. Pete's kayak helped
me make my decision. Check out the 'tatoo' of the guillemot, and
the use of paua (sp?) shell along the shear line.
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- build the strong back, the frame that supports the boat whilst
it is being built
- Build the mold: cut stations that are placed along the stong
back, spaced
often at an interval of 12 inches
- Cut strips of wood, that will run the length of the boat.
- Staple or clamp the strips to the mold, Each successive stip
is glued to the edge of the previous strip
- Sand the surface of the boat
- Fiberglass/Epoxy the out side.
- Repeat the sand and fiberglass on the inside. (for kayak
this is done for the hull and deck)
- For a kayak, join the Hull and deck.
- Build and Install the desired trim:
- Canoe: Gunwhales, Decks, Thwarts, etc.
- Kayak: combing, hatches, bungee cords, deck lines,
Rudder/Skeg
- Sand and Varnishi (3 coats minimum)
- Finally Enjoy
The following books, that I've read Describe the process in detail
(there are others):
- "Kayak Craft, Fine Woodstrip kayak construction", by Ted Moores,
- "Canoe Craft, an illustrated gide to fine woodstrip constuction",
By Ted Moores
- 'Three rugged and beautiful boats you can build,
The Strip build kayak', by Nick Schade
- Cut and build the panels used to create your boat
- Drill holles along the sides of each pannel (they must
align to the holes on the next panel
- Twist wrap the wire to 'stich' the pannels together, to
create the Hull (and for a kayak, the deck)
- Run a bead of thickened epoxy along the seams between
the panels, and smooth over to a nice radius.
- The remaining steps are the same as the
Stripper from Sanding on.
"The New Kayak Shop, More Elegant Wodden Kayaks Anyone Can Build",
by Chris Kulczycki provides details on the Stich and Glue building
technique.
Techincally a hybrid kayak could be a combination of any two
building techniques, for the purposes of this site, this is currently
limited to the stitch and glue hull, and the strip deck.
Some of the tips are worth a lot more than 2c. These are short tips
that builders have 'discovered' and want to share. These should only
be one or two paragraphs. (Please send in your tips, and I'll put
them up)
- The first tip must be, check out the three following building forums:
- Strong back/work table building tips
- Form/station building tips
- If you are building a simetrical canoe/kayak, then use
the form pairs to check they are the same as each other by
placing them on top of
each other. Do this and flip one over to check for simitry on
both sides of the boat.
- Stitch and Glue tips
- For beading on a fillet: put the thickened epoxy in to a
zip lock bag (with no breathing holes), cut a small hole in
the corner and you can squeeze out a nice fillet.
- Use a plastic spoon to radius the fillets.
- Stripping tips
- If you use staples, or brads, use stainless steal (with no oil)
it will help stop dark spots at the nails/staples.
- Sanding tips
- Epoxy tips
- Varnish tips
- Bobby Curtis (from KBBS, May 2003) " I started
using Scotch Bright pads by hand in place of sandpaper
and found it to work better. The pads don't fill up as
quickly and it was easier to control how much varnish is
removed. I also found it easier to feather the edges of
any drips that formed."
- Personalizing tips
- Kitting out tips
- Hybrid Tips
- Glass the hull inside and out prior to building the deck
- Build an internal 'strong back' so that the stations fit inside
the hull. This 'strong back' only supports the positions of the
frames, and shoudl be as light as possible. Make the stations hollow
(say 1.5 inches thick), and hold them in place with strips of cedar
on the inside of the stations.
kayak and canoe builders seem to be a gargarious bunch. Many put up
web pages showing progress, explaining steps and providing lots of
information that would be of interest to a new builder.
- Myrl Tanton's
Huron Cruser canoe building diary
this diary kinda peters off at the end, and is not all that well written
(I can say that cuz I writ it), but should be interesting useful to some.
- Myrl Tanton's
Hybrid Guillemot kayak Diary. I tried to take lots of pictures,
to compensate for my writing skills.
- Brian Graham's
Bear Mountain - Prospector canoe Brian's main hobby is wood working, he did
a fantastic job.
Other Resources
forums where the building community meets online. Ask questions,
answer questions, show off you boat, etc. I find these very usefull,
and entertaining. See you there.
- Kayak Craft, by Ted Moores: I found this to be a good book
for building technique. It seems to be missing information on
the location of the cockpit, the Ofsets for the tables have the
shear and profile points mixed up. The lofting process is not
described. To build a kayak from this book, it would help to
buy the plans. The description of the Building technique is very solid.
Steve Killing provided this E-mail
on lofting to augment the book.
- Canoe Craft(2nd ed.), by Ted Moores: similar to Kayak craft,
there is no recomended location for the seats, and the lofting
is not described. Errors in the lofting table, have corrections on
the bearmountian boat web page.
- The strip built sea kayak, by Nick Schade (title tbv). An
entertaining read, very complete. Nick provides several alternate
methods of doing steps. Errors in the offsets are provided on
on the Guillemot kayak building web page.
- "The New Kayak Shop, More Elegant Wodden Kayaks Anyone Can Build",
by Chris Kulczycki provides details on the Stich and Glue building
technique. I've just read this, and not built anything from it.
