kayaks from
Scratch Skin-on-Frame Skin-on-Frame Woodstrip-Epoxy
For thousands of years, kayakers stretched and sewed sealskin over a skeletal frame of driftwood to create sleek, seaworthy crafts used for hunting in icy circumpolar waters. About the only thing that distinguishes a modern skin-on-frame (SOF) kayak from its Inuit origins is a newfangled, rot-resistant nylon skin. A lashed or pegged frame creates an edgy, hard-chined hull. A sculpted masik—the deck rib immediately ahead of the cockpit—locks the paddler in the boat. Te characteristic low back deck enables unlimited options for rolling. Turner Wilson, a Maine-based builder of skin-on-frame kayaks, says most modern SOF-builders have been bitten by the traditional paddling bug and want to enhance their Greenland-style paddling skills with a boat that fits like a glove.
Stitch-and-Glue
Challenge: Builders need basic woodworking skills and the patience to take on the finicky tasks of joining the frame with mortises and tenons and sewing the skin. But don’t be intimidated. “Building a kayak involves many little steps,” notes Wilson. “Very few of which can cause irreparable damage should you make a mistake.”
Commitment: Wilson offers an intense 12-day, 120-hour course in which participants build their own SOF kayak. Visit
www.kayakways.net for more information. By cutting a few detail-oriented corners DIYers might shave this time in half.
COST: Materials for a typical western red cedar SOF kayak run about $600, including nylon skin and varnish.
32 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SUMMER/FALL 2010
ILLUSTRATION: PAUL MASON
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