Free Kayak Plan: Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak 1867
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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 approximate what the skin would look like when pulled and sewn to the cockpit coaming. The boat shouldn’t present any difficulties during a cedar strip build.
Specifications
Length: 18 feet 4-1/2 inches
Width: 19 5/8 inches
Kayak and Canoe Building Books
To build this kayak, consider one of these books. These three books are the best.
- The Strip-Built Sea Kayak: Three Rugged, Beautiful Boats You Can Build
: If you only buy one book, then buy this one.
- Building Strip-Planked Boats
: Contains updates to lots of the techniques found in The Strip-Built Sea Kayak.
- Kayakcraft: Fine Woodstrip Kayak Construction
: Some really good ideas.
For more, check out my canoe and kayak building books review.
Get the Drawing Package or Free Kayak Plans Downloads
The free kayak plans come as a pdf (free Adobe Reader required to view) that you can print off at photocopy stores. The drawing package includes the full-sized study plan and each station and stem drawn separately on a PDF that prints full sized on ARCH D size paper (nestings). You can cut these out and glue them to plywood to cut full-sized forms. A pdf of the electronic drawing package is available for this kayak. You can print the file on 24- by 36-inch paper on your own.
- Download here:Â Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak – 1867
Bryan Hansel
Bryan Hansel is a freelance writer, award-winning photographer and a former American Canoe Association L4 Open Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor. His home port is on Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota. He also teaches photography workshops.
6 Comments
Jonthan Bornman
I like what you are doing with these drawings; they look great! I also like that you are doing it as “shareware” offering. I tried to download the free plans and got one page… end view of the kayak but no table of offsets or lines drawing. What did I do wrong?
Thanks,
Jonathan
Bryan Hansel
I’m glad you like it. You didn’t do anything wrong. The plans include the station and stems in a 1:1 scale as a pdf. You can print it off at a copyshop and use the print for stations and stems. The linesplan is the clickable image below the “Specifications” section. I’m not including a table of offsets.
Simon
Brian,
I am thinking about building this kayak in SOF for its sheer beauty. I am 6’2″ tall and 170lbs will the kayak be ok for my size??
I am also concerned about stability where I am a novis. Could the beam be pushed out an inch or so? I am a boatbuilder so I don’t have any concerns with fairing lines. Or should I just plan on getting used to a tippy Kayak.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks, Simon.
Bryan Hansel
I love the look of this kayak also. At 4 inches of draft the displacement is 188 lbs, and the sheerline is 7 inches, so I suspect with the current width, it’d only work well as a rolling kayak for you. The low deck might also be a problem depending on your shoe size.
Taking the width out to 22 inches gets you 208 lbs of displacement at 4 inches. As for stability, with the width increase, it goes from KM=0.79 to KM=0.91. That’s more stable than the NDK Explorer and other British-style kayaks. Personally, I’d call that really stable.
I’d also change the deck on this one to an elliptical or a simple radius deck tall enough for your shoe size and maybe 11 to 12 inches at the cockpit coaming. I’d also build it with a keyhole cockpit.
Simon castle
Brian,
Thanks for all the information, I think it is worth trying the modifications. I haven’t seen anything else with such clean and simple lines, of course the flat deck lends to this, which I may have to change as you suggest.
If I go ahead with the build I will send some photos along.
One last question, do you think these modifications would have a negative affect on the kayak? Should I go with one of you other designs?
Thanks again,
Simon
Thanks, Simon.
Bryan Hansel
It’s hard to say, but it will probably be fine. Looking forward to the photos.