Wooden Kayaks: Designing in Cedar Strip

February-March 2001

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Mike Walker

John sanding the cedar strip hull

I started building kayaks about 4 years ago. Mostly it was through my frustration of not finding something on the market that I liked. One day I noticed my neighbour building a cedar strip canoe in his back yard. I was fascinated because I had never seen one being built before. As Howard carefully added strip after strip, he told me that he had built several boats in his lifetime, 60-foot fishing vessels to 50-foot schooners, and one that was a scaled down version of the Bluenose. Howard was from Newfoundland and from three generations of boat builders.

I asked him if he had ever built a kayak. He responded by saying that canoes were his passion, not kayaks. I asked if he would ever consider building one. He responded with a big fat 'No' and reaffirmed that canoes were really his passion. Then I asked if he would change his mind if I paid him to build me one. His face lit right up and asked if I would like another beer.

The advantage of having Howard build my boat was I could have it built to my specifications. After many visits to the local pub and listening to Howard's incredible tales of life on the shores of Newfoundland, I finally got the design I liked-a sloop-rigged sailing sea kayak with a drop center daggerboard and flush hatches. The deal was that I was to pay Howard for most of the building but I could also participate and act as his apprentice.

To help pay for the cost of designing a new boat we thought that we could use the first one as a plug for a mold, then make several more and sell them. I started advertising right away, even before we had our cedar strips cut. Howard thought I was crazy since we didn't even have an actual boat to show anyone. I told Howard at the time that if Bill Gates could do it with Windows 98 then I could do it with our new boat design.

It wasn't long before I had eight people interested in our boat. I told them I would contact them as soon as the prototype was finished. We started the project in January 1996 and by March we had the prototype ready to show people. Three of the eight people showed up to view the prototype and all three deposited $500 toward purchasing a finished product. By May 24th we had completed the three orders and also had several more lined up. The only thing we didn't have was a name for the kayak. Our buyers asked what we called our new design. I was stumped. I looked at my dog Teeka and blurted out to them that they were called 'Teeka Kayaks'.

After a while Howard moved on to other things and it came time for me to build a new kayak design. I was entirely on my own this time so I hoped that I had absorbed enough knowledge from Howard from the first boat. I wanted it to be narrower, and have more keel than the first boat so that it would track better. I also wanted to increase the hatch size so that you could get long objects like tent poles in easier. And a locking back hatch would be nice to store your lifejacket and paddle so that you didn't always have to take it with you whenever you tied up in busy populated areas.

I used our original plans and modified the station templates to get my desired effect. Once I was satisfied, I glued the new templates onto three quarter inch plywood and began cutting them out with a jig saw. I slid them on a very straight 16 foot two by four, slapped on the end pieces and voilà-I had a kayak mold and was ready to start nailing on the cedar strips.

Then it was off to Sunbury Cedar to pick out my light and dark cedar strips, always remembering what Howard once told me in his broad, Newfoundland accent: "You gots to have lots of light and dark wood, Bye. It's like candy for the eyes."

On our first kayak we planed each cedar strip to fit the previous stip. This time I decided to try bead and cove, and purchased the bead and cove router bits from Lee Valley Tools. I'm glad I chose this route because it made it much easier to join the strips. A good friend of mine, Karen, who had purchased one of the original Teeka Kayaks, helped me cut up the strips on a table saw and do the bead and coving through the router jig we created. I highly recommend this stage of building as a two-person job. There will be much less cursing involved.

We decided to start on the hull first, adding each strip with the bead facing up, alternating from side to side, changing colours as we went. We used three quarter inch nails instead of a staple gun for appearance.

Once the hull was completely closed in, we flipped it over and started work on the deck. This was a little more complicated since we decided to create curved designs with the strips to add more style to the deck.

Karen was very helpful in giving feedback at each stage of the building process and sometimes saved me from making some major errors that would have cost more time. Once the deck was closed in, except for the cockpit area, we pulled the deck and the hull off the mold. We had trouble doing this because some of the glue from the strips stuck to the plywood stations. Next time I will make sure I use low adhesive painter's tape on the edge of all the stations so that we don't run into this problem. It was pretty nerve racking, wondering if we would ever get the kayak separated from the mold.

Then the fun part started: planning and sanding and applying our first coat of epoxy resin. This stage made it all worthwhile since the wood grain and wood patterns jumped right out at us. The next phase was glassing. We used a slow-cure epoxy so that we had plenty of time to work it into the cloth. We used a six ounce cloth for the inside of the kayak and exterior hull, and a four ounce cloth on the deck. We used four ounce on the deck because it was less conspicuous, and to keep weight to a minimum.

After the epoxy resin had about a week to cure we cut the cockpit area out and front and back hatch as well.

Russell Noel, who was waiting to purchase this new boat, came by and asked how I thought it would paddle. I told him I didn't know, that designing a new kayak was like making a fine wine- you don't know how it's going to be until you pop the cork.

We decided we couldn't wait to see how it paddled and came up with an idea that would make CBC's Red Green proud. We duct-taped the hull and the deck together, threw it in the river and paddled it.

Russell was very pleased with how the kayak handled. I, on the other hand, felt that it needed a little more keel added at the stern . A week later the boat was back in the river with more keel added and I was finally satisfied with its performance. I felt it was now time to take a mold off my new design.

This is the stage I am at as I write this article I hope to have the fiberglass models available for our next season. I can't begin to describe the feeling of creating a new design and finally paddling it with all your expectations met. I can't wait to do it all over again.

Mike Walker has been hooked on kayaking since a Grey Whale popped up in front of him and dowsed him with spray on a trip in Clayoquot Sound. Since then he has paddled much of the northwest coast. In 1996 Mike established "A Great Little Kayak Co".