Among designers and kit manufacturers, Newfound Boatworks stands out for its variety of designs and a-la-carte pricing schedules on kits and raw materials.
For your time and effort, you’ll be well rewarded: strip-builts weigh about 25% less, and are many hundreds of times more beautiful, than the lightest, carbon-fiber kayak selling for $3,000 or more. Your kayak will be also be remarkably seaworthy: most strip designers are not only designers but experienced sea kayakers to boot.
The second building option is less time-consuming and more straightforward. It’s called stitch-and-glue.
Stitch-And-Glue Kayaks
To build a stitch-and-glue, you take panels of 3 to 4mm-thick marine plywood, called okume, that have been cut into lightweight forms. After epoxying (gluing) the sections together, you get down to work.
First you stitch the sections together with copper wire to form the rough shape of the boat. Then you bend the panels into the boat’s precise shape by placing, within the hull, two forms which also serve as the kayak’s bulkheads.
The entire outer surface of the hull is then fiberglassed — a straightforward if messy job — and sanded. You’ll want a high-quality random orbital sander and lots of sand paper. The kayak is then painted or varnished or both.
Like strip-builts, stitch-and-glue kayaks are beautiful: After varnishing, their plywood’s figures, swirls and waves attain a deep, lustrous glow.
Building costs for a stitch-and-glue kayak: about $1,000. Expect savings of about twenty percent if you buy only a set ol plans and hunt down the plywood, fiberglass, epoxy and supplies on your own.
Three designers stand out: Pygmy Kayaks of Washington State, whose designs take a little longer to build; Chesapeake Light Craft of Maryland, which specializes in intermediates’ boats; and Roy Folland Designs of Canada.
All three support vibrant online builders communities. All three also provide laudable levels of technical support via email, phone and detailed construction manuals.
Bottom Line
To build your own lightweight kayak: $1,000 to $1,400 plus the cost a few basic tools and the willingness to go for it.
