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Kayaks
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D rawing inspiration from sources ranging from the Inuit of Greenland to 1920’s runabouts, Nick Schade
has drawn on his 30+ years of small boating experience to create beautiful, high performance designs
suitable for building at home.
T hese designs are special because Nick approaches boat design as a dedicated boat user. He started
building boats because he wanted a kayak. The boat comes first, the beautiful, elegant lines are a side
effect of a form that is engineered to function beautifully on the water. With years of experience on the water
Nick develops boats with performance on the water as the number one goal.
He understands that there is more to a good boat design than merely floating upright and paddling straight
and a successful design must be created to meet specific performance goals on the water and these goals
vary with the waters where the boat is used. The fact that these wooden boats are beautiful is a bonus that
comes from obsessive attention to performance.
N ick offers do-it-yourself wooden boats plans for woodworkers and boater who want to build a boat. The
plans include full size paper patterns for all the building forms. He has written two books that serve as
instructions that will lead you through the construction of any of these boats.
Photograph: Night Heron sea kayak in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. – photo by Richard Bergen
Night Heron Family
T his adaptation of a traditional Inuit kayak form to modern construction techniques has
the on-the-water performance to match its looks. With long, graceful lines, the Night
Herons flows across the water smoothly and easily. The narrow waterline makes this boat
very efficient, while maintaining enough stability to sit comfortably in even the most unruly
water.
This family of designs includes the Petrel, a shorter, more maneuverable version of the
Night Heron which is suitable for smaller paddlers and women, or larger paddlers seeking a
fun play boat. The Night Heron can be built with 3 different deck configurations: Standard
height which is suitable for most paddlers, High Deck version for taller paddler and those
who need more leg room, and a Greenland deck version with a smaller cockpit and lower
back deck allowing easy Greenland style rolls.
The Night Heron design can be built with the stitch and glue method, strip planked, or as a
hybrid with a S&G hull and strip deck.
Petrel
A sporty, playful sea kayak that loves rough water.
Guillemot ‘S’
A fun, playful sea kayak for small paddlers.
Play
A responsive and playful sea kayak.
Jari Temonen of Finland in a Guillemot
S&G Guillemot
A stitch and glue interpretation of the Guillemot below.
Guillemot
A quick and responsive sea kayak.
Expedition Single
A responsive and efficient sea kayak for touring.
Guillemot ‘L’
A responsive sea kayak for larger paddlers.
Guillemot Double
Guillemot Double and Guillemot by Greg Hughes
A roomy and stable tandem sea kayak.
Fast Double
An fast tandem for experienced paddlers.
Great Auk Family
The baby of the fleet is the Little Auk, a cute little 10 or 11 foot long recreational kayak.
Stepping up in length and capability the 14’ Great Auk is a good cross-over design for
those who want an easy to handle boat that can move along at a moderate pace easily.
For venturing out further and paddling farther, the 17’ Great Auk has the stability for long
term comfort and the capacity for long distance touring. The High Capacity Great Auk
was designed for extra large paddlers and paddlers engaging in extra-long expeditions
needing maximum carrying capacity. The Razor Billed Auk design is suitable for racing and
high-speed touring. Finally the Great Auk Double is an efficient tandem with good touring
capability.
Great Auk
A simple roomy and stable sea kayak.
R acing boats from the 1924 Gold Challenge Cup are not the usual inspiration for a sea kayak, but
a picture of the George Crouch designed Baby Bootlegger got me thinking. Baby Bootlegger was an
innovation in its time, introducing the “rolled sheer” where the deck blends smoothly into the side and the
long stream-lined stern. While this may be an unexpected starting point for a kayak, the graceful, efficient
shape struck my fancy.
The µBootlegger (micro Bootlegger) is a roomy, efficient tandem kayak for cruising a lake or exploring a bay.
While more sedate than her namesake, she moves easily through the water and, should a wind blow in, will
handle rough water with aplomb. For those who are looking for flat-out speed, the Mystery is narrow, racy
speedster. Designed to compete in the Blackburn Challenge, a 20
mile open water race, the Mystery is ready to go as fast as your
motor can power it.
Solo microBootlegger
An elegant solo decked double paddle canoe.
microBootlegger
A modern take on a double paddle canoe.
Mystery
A sea kayak optimized for speed and racing.
Paddling the Solo microBootlegger by the big brother.
Nymph
I n the 1880’s J. Henry Rushton developed a line of small, ultra-lightweight
canoes designed to be propelled with a double-ended paddle like a kayak.
Based on the ideas of J. H. Rushton, I developed the Nymph using modern
building techniques. This boat uses the strip-built method and the latest
materials to create a fun and easy to handle little craft. At about 15 to
20 pounds Nymph is easy to carry down to the water. The tumble-
home below the gunwales makes the paddle stroke easier while
keeping good stability. At 10 feet long it can easily poke into hidden
coves. The 12 foot version has greater carrying capacity but is a
couple pounds heavier.
Nymph
A sweet double paddle canoe for small paddlers venturing out on ponds and
sheltered lakes. Available in 10 foot and 12 foot versions.
Designed for Use...
W hile these boats may make look like fragile works of art, their
construction is well suited for serious use. Wood is a natural
composite material that is more rugged and fatigue resistant than the
best high tech synthetics. This wonderful, beautiful material is then
protected under a completely transparent layer of fiberglass fabric
and sealed with epoxy resin. The result is a durable, rot resistant,
lightweight vessel that is worthy of hanging on the wall, but capable
of crossing an ocean.
More Strip-Planked
Designs
T he Aleut people lived in some of the most extreme conditions in the world. They hunted from an
amazing form of skin on frame kayak. The Aleutesque steps off from these unique boats to create a
stunning, fast and fun sea kayak. The Aleut boats were named “baidarkas” by the Russian traders who
first encountered the native kayakers. The baidarka was unusual for it bow and stern shapes. The bow
was “bifurcated” with a split between the high volume top and a slim wave cutting bottom. The stern was
truncated into a skeg. The Aleutesque vamps on these forms to create a high performance modern kayak
suitable for fitness training on lakes and the ocean.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Simple. It is just that, a simple boat that is easy to build and
comfortable to paddle. The shape was specifically designed to allow easy stripping while producing a boat
that will be easy to paddle and comfortably stable.
Simple
A simple to build strip-planked recreational kayak
Aleutesque
A sleek and fast kayak loosely based on Aleut Baidarkas.
Rowing Boats
N ot just another white dinghy. The Coot is an able little vessel to get you out to your yacht and back.
It rows along easily with room for a couple passengers and their gear. The design could be rigged for
sailing and can take a small outboard. This design can be built as a rugged little knock-about boat at about
65 lbs or as a little more delicate lightweight craft for easy stowing on a yacht cabin top.
Coot
Rowing the Coot
A classic pram style dinghy tender to get to your yacht or do a little fishing.
M ost Guillemot Kayaks designs are designed for strip-building, but several are available
exclusively as “stitch and glue” construction. This method uses precisely cut plywood
panels temporarily wired or “stitched” together then glued permanently with epoxy reinforced with
fiberglass. This method allows quicker construction than hand-fitting multiple narrow strips as is
done with strip-planking. The results do not allow for as fine curves as stripping, but stitch and glue
produces nice, rugged boats with less time and effort invested.
The Matunuck design is at home scooting down open ocean swell along side surf boards. This
beautiful little boat is a highly refined for surf. While the small size is appealing for other, less
extreme uses, it really isn’t well suited for anything other than sliding down steep waves.
If you are a first-time boat builder and want an inexpensive, quick and easy project to get your feet
wet, the Ganymede design was created specifically for you. This simple, but distinctive little kayak
can be assembled in a couple weekends or about a week of evenings. The result is a fun little boat
with a lot of capacity.
Fishermen and paddlers who would prefer sitting with their legs out in the sun and wind will
appreciate the Sea Island Sport sit on top kayak. Originally designed for a friend who had difficulty
getting in and out of standard kayak cockpits, the stable and efficient kayak is easy and fun to
paddle.
Matunuck
A dedicated surf kayak for ripping up the local beach break.
Ganymede
An easy to build, fun stitch and glue design for recreational paddlers.
Form
Strip-planked boats are built over a form that
defines the shape. Narrow strips of wood are
shaped to fit tightly together.
Fit
Each of about 100 strips are carefully shaped one at a time by hand to
create strong, tight joints between each piece of wood.
Fair
After the forms are covered with the strip planks, the wood needs to
be sculpted and smoothed to create a fair shape.
Fiberglass
The outside is reinforced with cloth. Fabric woven
from fine strands of glass is flexible and strong. This
cloth starts out white as the thin threads of glass
catch and reflect the light. It is hard to believe that
this silk-like cloth is created from glass.
Seal
The white fiberglass fabric becomes completely transparent
when saturated with a two-part epoxy mixture. This high-
strength adhesive bonds the ‘glass fabric to the wood with a
rugged layer of waterproof resin.
Strengthen
The inside of the boat can be further reinforced with more fiberglass
or for even greater strength and toughness a layer of Kevlar or Carbon
Fiber cloth may be substituted. While not transparent like the fiberglass,
the exotic fabrics add a handsome contrast to the natural wood.
Sanding
After several layers of epoxy have been added to the surface of
the boat a multi-step process of sanding and further resin fill coats
produce a smooth, hard surface ready for a glossy protective clear
coat.
Satisfaction
After many hours of careful work, the final
product is beautiful to behold. It is ready to be
displayed in a great room or paddled across a
bay.
Plans Prices
K
Adirondack Guide
its are available for all Guillemot Kayaks designs Boat 15.8 38.8 15.6 29.9 90
from Chesapeake Light Craft. Please visit our Guillemot “S” 16 20 13.8 20.1 90
website for more information. Play 16.5 22 14.4 21.7 85
Guillemot 17 21 14.7 20.7 90
Boat Kits
C omplete kits with all needed materials for all the Guillemot Kayaks designs are
available from Chesapeake Light Craft, the largest maker of small boat kits in the
world. Strip-planked kits include CNC-cut forms, and western red cedar cove-and-
bead strips. Stitch & Glue kits include CNC-cut plywood panels. All kits include
needed fiberglass and epoxy as well as seats and decklines as needed. Further
information about these kits is available either through the Guillemot Kayaks website or
at the Chesapeake Light Craft site at CLCBoats.com.
Guillemot Kayaks
www.Guillemot-Kayaks.com
54 South Rd
Groton, Connecticut, USA 06340
(860) 659-8847
nick@Guillemot-Kayaks.com