> While in Boothbay Harbor I saw two wooden kayaks that appeared to be made
> from plywood that was shaped to a form, what is this method? My father and
> I built a strip canoe 15 years ago that I still have and enjoy using but
> my wife and I are looking at trying Kayaking If I built a kayak I would
> want it to be an Expidition in order to haul gear. I am also considering
> building one each with my 3 children, probable the smaller one. What is
> the total cost of a finished one?

You may have been lookng at something made using a process called "Cold molding"

In this method a very strong form is used and thin strips of wood, wood veneer, or plywood are bent around the forms, secured in place, and covered with another layer or two of similar materials, which are glued on and built up to create a laminated hull. It is kind of like making your own plywood in a curved shape instead of a flat sheet.

since the wood is not steamed before being bent (That's why this is not calle HOT molded) it has to be pretty thin to remain flexible. Since you are building up several layers the thickness of each layer has to be consistent. Real thin plywood, like the 2mm and 3 mm metric sizeds stuff can be cut int rather wide strips and bent over molds rather easily. The wider the piece you put on, the fewer the joints and seams that you'll have to match between pieces. Bigger pieces are not very flexible in compound directions, so you use as many as you can, and fill in the gaps with smaller pieces.

When you put on the second (and third?) layers you stagger them so that all the joints and seams are well overlapped. If you use thin and narrow strips of solid wood, as you would for a stripper, you will have a lot of sams to cover. Thats why using plywood is probably seen more often -- but, I saw a picture of a cold molded canoe made from layers of redwood strips, in a magazine several years ago. My foggy suggests that the first layer of strips went on in one direction, the second layer went on at an angle ( probably 30 degrees) to that, and the third layer went on, again at an angle. Between any two layers the only possible leak points were at the intersections of the strips, and those points were well covered by the third layer of strips.

As in building a strip canoe or kayak, you must build a set of forms and mount them on a stable frame ( a strongback) first. Unlike a strip canoe, you do not need to fiberglass the hull, as the wood itself is sufficiently water resistant. a few coats of paint or varnish is fine. Of course, you can seal the wood with an epoxy resin or put on a layer of fiberglass cloth for ding and dent resistance if you like, but the fiberglass is not required structurally if your wood hull is built right.

Hulls built using this method, but with layer of 1/4. 3/8 or 1/2 inch plywood are found on much larger boats than kayaks and canoes, too. I'd guess the technnique is probably a LOT more common with bigger boats.

As for building multiple boats: If you use stitch and glue, cut several panels at the same time. If you use woodstrips, rip your own from good planks ( they don't have to be great (clear) planks and reuse the forms. If you want to make a few boats of different sizes then a strip built boat might be a good choice. Frequently you can shorten such a design by removing a form or two from the middle, and shifting the others in. This also give a narrower craft which is OK for kids. Or, you can increase the distance between the forms and stretch the boat a bit, allowing it to be used as a double.

Depending on how you configure the cockpit opening you can use the same boat as a double for an adult and a child, or a single with a large cargo capacity. t There were some pictures on this bbs of a triple built by Paul Stomski in Hawaii, which showed him and two of his kids. I believe he stretched a single into this.

If you are seriously looking at making several boats you should consider the amount of building time, and then look at building some skin on frame kayaks from the designs in George Putz's book on canvas covered boats. "Wood and Canvas Kayak Building". Once you build the forms you can very easily reuse them for several more boats. The second and third boats will go together faster, too. You can pop a frame of of the forms and start to assemble a second one while the first one is being covered with fabric and being painted, elsewhere. His construction methods are simple, and most of the wowk can be done by kids with hand tools. If your 'crew' is old enough to drive some screws, or nail in 1 inch brads or use a stapler, then they can have the pleasure of helping build their own boats. These canvas covered kayaks are light in weight, so they can carry their own boats, too !. As for cost, there is a recent post from a person who is compleitng one. He spent about $250 for it. Since about $40 worht of materials goes into the forms, and can be reused, another boat would be about $210. I suppose you could buy gallons of paint instead of quarts, and bring that price down even more. As for time savings, you can set up your saw and rip 7 to 10 strips of wood for this boat in about an hour(that would make most of the frame) Once your saw is set up, though, if you keep cutting for another half hour, though, you could easily end up with enough wood for 4 or 5 kayaks. You make most of your sawdust on the first day, and just have to sweep up the big pile once.

Again, if you want a shorter boat you can space the forms closer. If you are looking at making 4 boats you might end up spending $800 to $900 total, and have some beautiful, traditional boats. If you go with stitch and glue designs you might look at Chris Kulczyki's book, which has reduced size plans for three different boats. The first one in the book, the Yare, only uses two sheets of plywood and goes together rather quickly. Since you are working from plans, once you enlarge them you can cut several sheets of plywood to shape at one time.

I also have plans from an out of print (and out of copyright) book for an 11 foot kayak made from standard exterior glued 1/4 inch plywood. the lines are not great to look at, and it is too short and beamy for my taste, but it looks like a nice kids boat and should take a lot of abuse, and be inexpensive. I'd use lauan plywood to keep it REAL cheap, but still look nice. If you are interested in these send me an e-mail and I'll try to scan them from the book and e-mail them to you. (could take a couple days)

Just some thoughts for you. Hope they help.

Paul G. Jacobson