-
Canoe and Kayak Building Resources
Building resources for wooden canoe and kayak homebuilders.
-
Reviews of Boat Building Books
Concise reviews of 19, count them, 19 boat building books. This list will get you started building boats of your own. It's easy just check out my building log for my latest kayak.
-
Free Canoe Plans and Free Kayak Plans Project Summary
In September 2010, I decided to draw and release a free canoe plan or a free kayak plan each week for the entire winter. I planned the project to end on April 1st, 2011. My goal was to produce between 24 and 26 total plans based on historic designs found in Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. A few of the models came from other sources. In all, I drew and released 25 plans. Things I Learned On a project of this magnitude, about 100+ hours of computer time, I’m bound to learn something, and I did. Basically, I learned to quickly model boats using DELFTship Pro, and…
-
Free Plans – Coast Salish Style Canoe
The Coast Salish Style Canoe appears on page eight of Leslie Lincoln’s Coast Salish Canoes. Lincoln writes that it’s the classic style and is housed at the Vancouver Centennial Museum, Vancouver, B.C. The boat measures over 27 feet making it as long as most voyager canoes. Lincoln also notes that the Coast Salish style canoes evolved for use in inland seas. This canoe features an interesting flare along the sheerline. The design works to keep the craft from shipping waves while maintaining a narrow hull for speed. It’s reflected in the bow; where, as Lincoln notes, the upper edge flares to keep out waves, but the lower, narrower section cuts…
-
Free Plans – Old Model Ottawa River Algonkin Canoe
The old model Algonkin canoe from the Ottawa River area represents a canoe built before contact with other tribes and the fur trade changed the types of canoes built by the Algonkin. It features high ends, a flat sheerline and resembles canoes used during the fur trade. In the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, Howard I. Chapelle writes that this style may have been the type of canoe that fur trade boats were based on. The canoe shown in these free plans has a surprisingly high carrying capacity. The flat bottom should make it stable. Personally, I love the look of the stems. It’d be fun to…
-
Free Plans for the 1888 King Island Kayak
The 1888 King Island Kayak appears as figure 181 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Howard I. Chapelle writes that the King Islanders were known as skilled kayakers. Their kayaks followed a pattern similar to the Nunivak Island kayaks with a narrower and more V-shaped hull and different stems. The King Island boat’s stem sweeps upward and ends in what Chapelle called “a small birdlike head, with a small hole through it to represent eyes and to serve for a lifting grip…” John Heath considers the cockpit coaming on this version of the King Island kayak atypical, because it doesn’t rest on any cross members. It…
-
Free Plan – 1889 Nunivak Island Kayak
The Nunivak Island kayak isn’t something that you’d see everyday in modern recreational kayaks. For one thing, it has a big hole in the bow. In the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, Howard I. Chapelle notes that the hole is one of the main features that distinguished the Nunivak Island boats from the Kodiak kayaks. Figure 180, which this kayak comes from, shows the kayak with a mythological water monster painted on its side. Palriayuk, the water monster, eventually disappeared from the sides of the kayaks as missionaries influenced the thinking. Just try an Internet search to see if you can find reference to this water monster…
-
Free Canoe Plans: Malecite Racing Canoe of 1888
In 1888, Jim Paul and Peter Polchies built the Malecite Racing Canoe of 1888 for Lt. Col. Herbert Dibble of Woodstock notes Howard I. Chapelle in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. This 19-foot, 30-inch canoes, which appears as figure 66 in his book, shows flare in the center and tumblehome towards the ends. Its sleek hull looks fast. The original was built lightly built and much decorated. There’s something about Malecite canoes. The lines seem to draw my eyes, and the canoe in this free plan does the same. I imagine that it’s a tender but fast ride, and I think it looks like a fast…
-
Free Kayak Plan: Southern Alaskan Baidarka Plans
The Southern Alaskan Baidarka appears as figure 179 in Edwin Tapppan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boat of North America. This is the only tandem kayak in the book, and the only known style of kayak that was built with more than one seating position — sometimes baidarkas had three. Chapelle notes that this kayak has the stern like the Kodiak kayaks but the hull and bifid bow of the better known Aleutian boats. The original boat in the Washington State Historical Society and Museum is damaged. John Heath took the lines in 1962 and corrected for the damage in his plans. This by far…
-
Free Kayak Plan: U.S. Coast Guard Museum Greenland Kayak
The U.S. Coast Guard Museum Greenland Kayak was collected in 1967 and then donated to the museum. When Mark Starr surveyed the kayak, he noted that the skin had shrunk enough to crush the center of the boat. He drew it as he thought it should look with an almost flat keel. He also noted that there was evidence that the boat once had an exterior mounted skeg. The kayak’s sheerline has a subtle curve, and its multi-chine hull shape looks like the Goodnow Kayak. The cockpit coaming is only 12-1/2 inches wide. I doubt someone who weighed very much could fit in the cockpit opening, so I drew it…
-
Free Kayak Plan: MacMillan Kayak
I finished this kayak on Thanksgiving, a harvest festival celebrated in the United States. Tradition says that the original celebration occurred in the early 1600s and celebrated the European settlers surviving their first year with the help of the natives. It’s a grand story that didn’t turn out that great for the natives. Here I am 400 years later, digitizing kayaks that someone used for hunting and the survival of family. Something that they were probably thankful for. Now, we use these kayaks for recreation. Perhaps this kayak plan exemplifies that use. Rear Admiral MacMillan, an explorer, collected the MacMillan kayak at some point between 1908 and 1954. He was…
-
1865 St. Francis Canoe Plans
The 1865 St. Francis 2-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 80 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It represents the typical form of a late-19th century St. Francis canoe, which, as described by Howard I. Chapelle, has high-peaked ends, a quick upsweep to the top of the stems, a vertical end profile with a short radius turn from the keel and rocker that occurs only in the ends of the canoe. By the middle of the 19th century, Chapelle notes that the St. Francis were building a fine canoe and selling them to sportsmen. These models became the standard for hunting and fishing in Quebec. Because of…
-
Free Canoe Plan: 1898 Passamaquoddy Ocean Canoe
The 1898 Passamaquoody Decorated Ocean Canoe comes from page 82, Figure 74 of Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. The text notes that this is the last known canoe of this style built. Tomah Joseph of Princeton, Maine built the canoe based on a cedar and canvas porpoise-hunting canoe. It has similar pinched ends and rounded tumblehome as the Modern Malecite St. John River Canoe. Length over all: 17ft 4inDesign beam: 36inDesign draft: 0.436inDisplacement: 510lbLength of waterline: 15.8ftWetted surface area: 29.5ft^2Optimum capacity: 300-800lbPounds to immerse an inch: 145lb The linesplans show the profile, plans and station view of this canoe. Free Canoe…
-
Free Canoe Plan – Modern Malecite St. John River Canoe
This cedar canoe drawing is taken from Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It appears on page 79. Adney surveyed the original in 1895. He notes that the boat shows moderate sheer and low ends. For this set of free plans, I left the station shape and stem shape alone, and I modified the rocker and sheer. The original drawing shows the canoe with little to no rocker–I prefer a canoe that has some rocker–so I added a similar amount of rocker as seen in Prospector canoes. When I changed the rocker, I changed the sheerline, because I felt the additional rocker…
-
Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak-the Igdlorssuit – Launching
Wetting the kayak in the crystal clear water of Lake Superior was the best reward for almost a year of building. Ilena and I launched the Iggy with little fanfare. John Amren, owner of Superior Coastal Sports in Grand Marais was the only other attendee, and he was there because we choose the beach behind his shop as our point of departure for a tour around the Grand Marais harbor. The Iggy is a semi-replica of the 1959 Ken Taylor kayak that spawned the Anas Acuta and spurred modern British recreational kayaking. The original Iggy was built as a skin-on-frame in Igdlorssuit (Illorsuit is the new spelling) by Emanuele Korneiliussen.…
Or if you use a RSS Feed Reader subscribe via our RSS Feed.