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Free Plans – 1894 Unalaska Baidarka Kayak
The Unalaska baidarka appears as Figure 178 in the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Howard I. Chapelle, the author, writes that it represents the standard design used throughout the Aleutian Islands and on the mainland as far east as Prince William Sound. The Aleuts also used this style in the Pribilof Islands and at St. Matthew as a sealing kayak. Chapelle notes that the bow varied from the style used in this free plan, but he says that the body style remained the same. The Aleuts also built this kayak in two-cockpit and three-cockpit versions. I had a hard long battle modeling this one. Like the last…
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Free Kayak Plans and Free Canoe Plans
For years, PaddlingLight has been giving away the free drawings of historic and recent canoe and kayak, but I didn’t know how many plans people were downloading. In the last year I decided to start tracking just a few of the downloads to get a grasp on how many were actually being downloaded. I picked 5 of the 35 free drawings that I offer: a popular historic kayak design that has been built many times, a history canoe that has been built many times (most often in Italy), a canoe that looks interesting but hasn’t been built often (if at all), an original yost-style, skin-on-frame kayak and another historic kayak…
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Belcher Island Kayak Plans
The Belcher Island Kayak was collected in 1958 from Great Whale River where it was built by “Adlaykok” or Allaiquq. It appears as figure 46 in E.Y. Arima’s Inuit Kayaks in Canada: A Review of Historical Records and Construction, Based Mainly on the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s Collection. Arima notes that it was likely built for demonstration, and that its 22-foot length and 29.5-inch beam would make for a good trade kayak between the Belcher Islands and mainland. He also notes that it’s likely as much as a single paddler could handle by himself. The condition of the kayak was rather poor when the lines were taken. The bottom was collapsed and…
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Super Secret Kayak Design
A couple of years ago, I designed this kayak for someone in China. He never got around to building it, or at least he never let me know if he built it. It’s been sitting on my harddrive since then. Recently, I pulled it up and refined it a bit to add extra stability. This kayak falls into the recreational touring class. It’s 15 feet long with a touch of rocker. It should cruise along nicely in the 3 to 4 knot range and feel really solid for beginners despite it’s slightly narrower width than plastic boats in this class. It could be built in cedar strip, plywood or possibly…
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Free Canoe Plans and Free Kayak Plans Update
One of the main (many) purposes for PaddlingLight has been to store a number of canoe plans and kayak plans. Most of the plans are free, but a few, my designs, are for sale. The revenue that I get from sales doesn’t add up to much. Last year, it was just enough to pay off old prototypes and make a new canoe prototype that I’ll test in 2012. The hardest part for me is figuring out how to make money or, at least, continue to make enough money to fund building more of these boats in the future and make it feel like my time isn’t wasted modeling these boats…
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Siskiwit Bay Skin-on-Frame Sea Kayak Plans
The Siskiwit Bay SOF is a multi-chined version of the original Siskiwit Bay cedar strip boat. It’s a great modern British-style sea kayak that a builder can scale down to suit his size. These free kayak plans are for builders desiring a skin-on-frame version of the boat built in Yost-style. For stitch and glue plywood builders, the Siskiwit Bay MC is also available. The plans come as full-sized drawings that you can print. Note: The sheerline and design features sweeping curves that might challenge first-time Yost-style builders. If you haven’t built a Yost-style SOF before, this might not be the best option. The basic process of a wooden framed Yost-style…
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Printed Canoe Plans and Kayak Plans Plus Electronic Nestings
PaddlingLight offers a significant number of historic canoe and kayak plans and several original designs. In the past, those free kayak plans and free canoe plans came as a drawing on one sheet of paper. The plans showed the stations at 1-foot intervals with the stems drawn over the station. Only my commercial plans and a few were available with nestings. I’ve decided to start offering nestings for all the plans. I’m also offering a new service. I’m printing the nesting and stem and station plans on 24- by 36-inch paper. These two new services come with a fee. While I’ve made these plans available without expecting to make any…
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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…
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Free Kayak Plan: Koryak Kayak
This style of kayak, used in the Sea of Okhotsk, is the only distinctive Asiatic type, says Howard I. Chapelle in the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It is a hunting boat designed for calm waters. Chapelle notes that it shares the same form as hunting and fowling stiffs used in America. He also notes that the Koryaks weren’t daring canoemen and stayed out of rough water. Paddlers of the boat drawn in this week’s free kayak plans used two ping-pong-looking paddles to move the boat. It is, reportedly, highly maneuverable. This kayak was seriously easy to model. It’s also the shortest boat that I’ve modeled in…
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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…
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Free Canoe and Kayak Plan Project
If you’re a loyal reader of PaddlingLight, you know that I’ve been modeling old canoes and kayaks from sources like The Bark Canoes and Skin Boat of North America and turning them into free plans. I’m almost three months into the project, which started on October 8th. So far, I’ve modeled 12 free plans during the project and with the holiday crunch I need a week off — that’s why you’re seeing this post instead of a new plan this week. The process for modeling one of these boats is lengthy. I put in a couple of hours on each boat with some taking longer than others — surprisingly, because…
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Free Kayak Plans: North Greenland Kayak
Mystic Seaport Museum’s North Greenland kayak appears in Mark Starr’s Building a Greenland Kayak. Starr notes that Admiral Byrd, an Arctic explorer collected the kayak. He thinks it might have been during the 1925 MacMillan expedition to northwest Greenland. This kayak is much different than other kayaks that I’ve drawn. It has a flat bottom, which results from the use of three-part ribs instead of a single bent rib. It’s sides almost rise steeply from the chine to the sheer. The cockpit area looks like a bubble that rises high in a short distance. The turn of the rear stem seems subtle and almost non-existent. For a cedar strip kayak…
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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…
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Free Kayak Plan: Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak 1867
In Building a Greenland Kayak, Mark Starr writes that this kayak, collected in 1867, is the most beautiful kayak that he’s drawn. He believes that it represents a kayak in its purist form; just five sweeping curves define its shape. Although noted as a Labrador kayak, it’s actually a Greenland-style boat. While drawing the kayak for these free plans, I didn’t encounter any real problems. The simple curves essentially faired themselves with only a little help from the computer. It’s a pretty simple kayak. I drew the fore-deck to the original drawings, so even in cedar strip, the boat will look like a replica. Near the cockpit, I attempted to…
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Free Walrus Kayak Plans
In 1921, Norman L. Skene surveyed the 1921 Peabody Museum’s Southwest Greenland kayak. Taken by the lines, he drew up plans for a westernized version, which he named Walrus. For the Walrus, he widened the boat to 22 inches, lowered the deadrise and designed a larger cockpit. Construction changed from bent ribs and animal skin to dimensional lumber, truss-like framing and canvas skin. He published the free plans in the June 1923 issue of The Rudder. By the time Skene published the article, many kayaks of his design had already been built. Builders noted that the design was seaworthy and easy to learn to paddle. Recently, George Putz covered building…