: By the way do you seal the storage compartments in these kayaks to be
: completely waterproof with some sort of bulkhead or something? What should
: I use for the first kayak (wood wise) as for skills to build I am a
: carpenter by trade so I feel quite comfortable working with wood.

Time to hit the public library, or the internet book sellers. Suggested reading materials:

The Kayak Shop : Three Elegant Wooden Kayaks Anyone Can Build by Chris Kulczycki

The New Kayak Shop: More Elegant Wooden Kayaks Anyone Can Build by Chris Kulczycki

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

Kayakcraft : Fine Woodstrip Kayak Construction by Ted Moores(Illustrator), Jennifer Moores(Photographer)

Building a Strip Canoe by Gil Gilpatrick

Featherweight Boatbuilding : A Woodenboat Book by Henry "Mac" McCarthy

Stripper's Guide to Canoe-Building/With Drawings by David Hazen

and for a change of pace, consider some views on a simpler building method:

Wood and Canvas Kayak Building by George Putz

The main reason I include the Putz book in this list of books on wooden boat building is mainly because of the possibility of building this design with a plywood hull and deck, rather than cloth. Putz's "Walrus" design is suited for a bigger paddler. Searching this bbs for items posted on "plywood Walrus" by Mike Hanks will get you some background on how he did it.

If money was short and I could buy just one book I'd get the book by Hazen, mainly because it includes full size drawings for 2 kayaks. For the price it is a steal. Otherwise, the Kulczycki books and the one by McCarthy deal with building with plywood -- stitch and glue or lapstrake construction, respectively -- and Nick Schade and Ted Moores both have fine books on woodstrip construction.

As for wood used: With strip construction the most common wood used is Western Red Cedar. Next would probably be pine, then other cedar varieties, and finally anything else. Generally the boat materials are 3/16 or 1/4 inch thick strips ripped from common 1 x stock (1x6 or 1x8) or from 5/4 cedar (commonly sold for building home decks).

With plywood the preferred variety seems to be a marine grade Okume (various spellings on this), followed by other marine grade plywoods including mahogany. These tend to be rather expensive materials so many people are using lesser cost plywoods including Lauan and Meranti (either of these is sometimes called phillipine mahogany) which are readily available in 1/4 inch and thinner sizes for use as floor underlayments and doorskins.

The books will explain about sealed storage areas and the bulkheads and hatches needed.

Good luck with your new hobby.

Paul G. Jacobson