Nick Schade - The Strip-Built Sea Kayak: Three Rugged, Beautiful Boats You Can Build

The Strip-Built Sea Kayak

Three Rugged, Beautiful Boats You Can Build

Nick Schade

Ragged Mountain Press
Camden, Maine

Copyright 1998 by Ragged Mountain Press. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-170870-8
MHID: 0-07-170870-7

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In memory of my wife Cathy. I would not have started this project without her encouragement. The memory of that encouragement let me finish it.

I would like to thank all those who helped me expand this book beyond what I could have accomplished on my own: my brother, Eric, for his collaboration as we learned together how to make strip-built kayaks and what we could do with the strips; also for his input on the Artistic Creation section of this book () and his review of the manuscript; Michael Vermouth, of the Newfound Woodworks, and Chris Hardy, of Marine CAM Services, for their material support in the making of some of the boats used in the photographs; Jay Babina for his contribution of techniques; and the members of the Internets kayak community for their insight into all kinds of things. My thanks to Jon Eaton, of International Marine and Ragged Mountain Press, for his editing, encouragement, and especially his patience and understanding as I went through some hard times.

Finally, I must thank my parents for their help: my mother was my photographic consultant and also helped me negotiate some of the vagaries of the publishing industry; my father provided his simple interest; my father-in-law, Peter Stern, with his editing, is, as much as anyone, responsible for making my original book proposal something that Ragged Mountain Press would be interested in. This book would have been better had he survived to provide that editing on the finished result; and my mother-in-law, Helen, for keeping me as her son after the loss of her daughter.

After the loss of Cathy during the writing of this book, there were innumerable people who helped me in ways they probably dont understand. It is the simplest things that help the most. I thank you all.

Strip-building is the art of taking stacks of thin strips of wood and converting them into beautiful and durable watercraft. It has been a popular method of making canoes for years, and now you can use it to create rugged sea kayaks, too. Despite the complex shape of a kayak, building with strips is not as difficult as you might imagine. You dont need extraordinary skills or knowledge, and you wont have to invest a small fortune in specialized tools. You can believe me when I say its easily within the ability of the average do-it-yourselfer.

Strip-building a kayak means taking a pile of narrow strips of wood and wrapping them around a temporary form. The strips can be laid in almost any direction as long as you cover the forms with wood.

I started paddling as a kid, mainly in my parents canoe and a kayak my father made from a kit, so when I got out of college I wanted a boat of my own. I had read about the idea of a sea kayak, but Id never seen a real one. It sounded like the ideal vessel, because although I had enjoyed paddling my fathers little kayak, it wasnt fit for the sea, which was really where I wanted to be. The problem was, as a typical college student I didnt have enough money to buy a sea kayak.

The wood strips are covered with fiberglass and resin to create a durable and beautiful craft that is also a work of art