Building your own boat is an absorbing pastime leading, hopefully, to an enjoyable result. Kayaks are about the simplest boats to make, and they give tremendous fun. There are plenty of kits available for amateur building and some result in extremely beautiful boats, or you can buy a set of plans.
However, a kit or a set of plans may not give exactly the kayak that you’d like. In our case we dislike carrying heavy kayaks, and that provides a convenient excuse for the enjoyable challenge of making a strong, lightweight boat. These kayaks are suitable for recreational use in calm estuary and coastal waters but at 8-9kg are far lighter than comparable commercially available boats, and are also significantly cheaper than either a kit or a complete kayak.
To keep the weight down, we make the hull from 1.5 mm marine ply. As a result, our kayaks are liable to damage if they go aground on a sharp object, but used carefully they can have a very long life. One of our kayaks made in 1992 has travelled hundreds of miles over sea and estuary, and thousands of miles on top of the car, all for the cost of just three repairs to the hull.
Our aim, then, is to make a very light kayak that feels secure on the water. It is easy to adapt the design, and as examples we will show a one-person kayak (a ‘K1’) and an ‘Adult and Child’ version suitable for introducing children to the joys of small boating.
Kayak design
Since a one-off can be tailored to an individual user, each one will be unique. The detailed dimensions are simply those that work well for us, and may be a helpful starting point for your design.
Before putting pen to paper it’s worth considering where the boat will be built. In our case, we have a workshop-shed, but if we build in the winter it is warmer to work in the house. We have chosen a length of 4.5m since