Description: The Siskiwit Bay MC is all-around fast mid-sized British-style touring kayak designed for plywood building. This kayak suits a medium to heavy paddler looking for good initial stability and with increased flare above the waterline lots of secondary stability. As the water gets rougher, this kayak feels more stable. It’s a fast design slightly more efficient than most British kayaks in its class. Designed by Bryan Hansel.
Experimental: Since the Siskiwit Bay plans became available on the Internet, I’ve received requests for a plywood version of the kayak. The SB was originally designed as a multi-chined boat for plywood building using the excellent HULLS software. I’ve taken the original file and used Delftship Pro to clean it up and fair the lines. From this cleaned up original file, I’ve produced a dxf and a text file of offsets. These are available for plywood builders. A deck is included, but it is experimental.
Note: I don’t know if it has been built yet.
Hydrostatics: Generated for 295 pounds, which is the number used for Sea Kayaker Magazine’s reviews. (195 pound paddler + 45 pound kayak + 55 pounds of gear).
Design Name: Siskiwit Bay MC
- Design length: 17 feet
- Design beam: 1.757 feet
- Design draft: 0.417 feet
- Length on waterline: 14.908 feet
- Beam on waterline: 1.649 feet
- Displacement: 295 lbs.
- Longitudinal center of buoyancy: 7.878 feet
- Transverse metacentric height: 0.761 feet
KAPER: KAPER is a resistance program used by Sea Kayaker Magazine for their reviews. SK uses a weight of 250 pounds plus the weight of the kayak to calculate the resistance. It is provided here at the same weight for comparative purposes.
- 1 knot – 0.24
- 2 knots – 0.87
- 3 knots – 1.81
- 4 knots – 3.35
- 4.5 knots – 4.66
- 5 knots – 6.87
Stability Chart
Drawings: Two formats are available. DXF and offsets in text.
Yost-style Skin-on-Frame Plans
The three drawings provide the basis for a Yost-style skin-on-frame. I’ve gotten many requests for this, so someone better build it! :)
- The SOF version now has its own page! Siskiwit Bay SOF is here.
Donate
If you build this canoe, consider donating $30 for my time and effort. Donate other amounts by pressing the Buy Me a Beer button located at the end of the article. Any donations are appreciated.
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42 Comments
Very cool. Thanks Bryan for making this available. The only problem is that now I have yet another boat to add to my list of boats to consider building!
Cheers,
Bryan S.
Thanks, Bryan. If you build it, let me know. I’ll be interested in seeing if the multi-chine hull retains the same charm as the rounded version.
Hi
Is it possible to have the file with the developped plates who you show upside?
I can’t open the DXF developpements because I can’t save it on my computer.
Thanks
It is ok now,it was a computer problem.
Thanks for this nice kayak
How did you make the developable plates from the original delft dxf to CAD
I mean did you make the plates in Delft or CAD. Dalft only develops 3 of 4 of my strakes.
I used Delftship to export the developments to a dxf file.
You have to make sure your panels are set to be developable in the layer menu, and you should also make sure that your error rate is low. Ideally, you’ll want panels that develop in one try and with a zero error rate. Running your control grid perpendicular across the panels helps.
Cool Thanks. I am using freeship it wont let me dxf the plates
It should have a save as dxf button in the development panel.
Bryan,
thanks for sharing this design. I noticed, you made an update on this webside. Is there also an update on the design other than the rounded stems? Or can I still use my printouts I made month ago?
You can still use the same printouts. There’s no update to the design. Send pictures when you finish.
Bryan,
I would like to understand how am I suppose to read the text developments. I converted in centimetres and as it looks like the first column contains x axis coordinates and the second one, y axis coordinates. please correct me if I am wrong.
I’ll buy you 20 beers if you come to Romania :))
Gelu
Hi, Gelu,
You’re correct. The first column is the x axis and the second is the y axis. Just an FYI, the original are in feet.
Bryan, I lost you by the “just an FYI, the original are in feet” sorry for my ignorance; could you detail/explain?
thanks,
Gelu
I think I got the FYI acronim issue.
Course, I considered the original measures as expressed in Feet for both columns.
I just wanted to make sure. :) Send a picture of the completed kayak when you’re done! Can’t wait to see it.
I wish I build it, it is really sexy !
don’t know yet , actually I don’t have much of a sea or ocean around, here in Transylvania, only lakes.
I wish to build a kayak that’s easy to turn, must roll (low profile aft deck) and have some speed . This project looks to have some rocker, and the rest of features I need. It will track more than I need I think.
thanks for your effotr on this site.
That depends on how you view tracking. The Siskiwit kayaks turn very quickly when leaned. When a slight lean will initiate a turn.
I paddle with a creeker on lakes at the moment. Any other boat will track better :))
Brian,
Thanks for posting. I’m a professional boat builder (fiberglass, ranging between 64-151ft) and have been dying to get into plywood boat construction. All of the free plans I’ve found have been very ugly and I’m really happy to see the amount of effort you’ve put into this. I’m going to begin construction within the next week or two and take detailed pictures and notes for you. Thanks again!
James Lyon,
Anacortes, WA
I can’t wait to see your results and thanks for the compliment.
Brian,
I can’t get my version of AutoCAD LT to work on this computer (windows 7) so I downloaded a DXF viewer. If I print the DXF at 100:1 will that allow me to spray-glue them down to MDF and have full scale patterns? Thanks.
James
DXF is tricky, so I’m not sure if 100:1 will work exactly right because I’m not sure what viewer you’re using. The shortest strake, which is the one in the center, measures 15 feet, 3 13/16 inches. As long as the scale turns out right, you should be able to print them out. I can turn the file into a PDF if that helps. What’s the widest you can print?
PDF would be wonderful, you can e-mail it to me if you like. Thanks a lot!
James, I couldn’t get the pdf to print correctly, because the paper size is too long. I need to install a plotter driver. I found http://www.doublecad.com/ which is free. It will allow you to import the dxf and print it. You may need to scale everything by 12 to get to feet. Double CAD should allow you to print the file directly to your plotter.
Linda is not gonna like this design, Bryan, because I have to add it to my list. I should get it built by 2018…gotta give her some personal time inbetween projects. Great design, love the lines. I can see that it will move very nicely through the rough stuff.
RNP
Thanks. It seems like the first reports are coming in on the builder forum and this sea kayak sounds like it paddles as well as the cedar strip version. I think you’ll like it when you build it.
I’m having a hard time with the formating. I’ve downloaded several different cad programs and can see the plans but I don’t think I have all of it. Are there stations included in the drawings? I really like the look of this boat but before I try the strip build, I would really like to build the S and G model. Can I use the stations from those plans on the S and G? Do you have any other suggestions. I’m hoping to start my buld by the end of the month so I can take it to Florida in September.
Thanks,
Dave
Is there a visual depiction of how to cut the panels for this kayak? Or a simpler way of figuring out how the panels fit together to build? This is my first kayak and I am finding it a little daunting.
Strake 1 is the bottom, 2 the next highest, etc… See my note below.
Also, how much marine plywood would this require? and what thickness?
You should buy The New Kayak Shop: More Elegant Wooden Kayaks Anyone Can Build. It’s a great book and will answer all your questions about building this boat.
Hello and from BULGARIA !
Its really great looking kayak, from free plans, that I looking till today.
But, I cannot print pictures with sizes to make scale.
Are You have AUTOCAD version of plans, or picture with dimensions , that can print on sample printer ?
You can print the dxf file via AutoCAD or plot the offsets by hand using the files in the download section. Those are the options that I’m offering at this point.
I am allready in preparation of building this proekt, and found machine cutting for plywood. But, see, that in project is no inside pieces… And, I see, that project is made fullsize. But, plywood is sell on sheets of 2.4 m x 1.2 m. My ask is, is there any inside pieces, and, if is possible to convert project to pywoods of sheets of 2.4mx1.2m ?
You can use the stations from the Siskiwit SOF to help with framing this. It’s to the outside skin, so you may have to reduce the size by the thickness of your plywood. You could convert it to 2.4×1.2m plywood, but the drawings are provided as is.
Hi Konstantin,
I was also hoping to cut the parts with CNC, however ran into the same issues. I was unable to source marine grade ply bigger than 1.2m (4ft) x 2.4m (8ft) – hence 3 joint point on the longer peices. You can buy non marine grade bigger, but it splinters & delaminates too much.
We have not yet found the time to convert the drawing to full sheets with jigsaw joints. Did you manage to make this file and would you be prepared to share it?
This week we are going to cut the peices with jigsaw joints into 12mm MDF on XLARGE sheets instead and use this as a bench router template. But if you manage to work out the best way to nest all the components to fit then I would rather cut directly into ply.
Have you made jigsaw joints before. If you have the dxf template for those joints, it’d be easy enough to add them to the drawings, but I don’t have experience with that kind of joint. After that nesting the plates would be easy.
Hi, i was wondering if you have the DXF or a DWG of the inside seperation of the KAyak? Sorry for my english, i am french from Quebec. I plan to use a CNC to cut the pieces and on your DXF there only the long parts, the hole for the cabin and the form that goes inside are not on the DXF. Can you send thoes to me?
Tanks you for thoses plans it is verry cool to have acces to that kind of professionel work.
I don’t have a specific cockpit opening that I offer. You can make one any size that you’d like. You can use the Siskiwit SOF forms for the stations. Just remove the width of your plywood. Otherwise, you can purchase a builder’s package that includes both as a pdf.
Tank you, so i understand tha you dont provide in DXF the station drawing?
I could provide it, but it’s a bit of work, so I’d charge $30 for it, which is the same package rate that I offer for other detailed drawings. For $30, I could send you the pdf and a dxf of the package.
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