Boat Building:

As I live in San Diego, I end up spending a lot more time kayak surfing in the ocean than paddling the rivers (though I spend as much time on the rivers as I can). I started out in an old Dancer - about the worst surf kayak you can imagine. Things in the river kayak world have gotten better for surfing with a Hurricane and then a Hammer and now a Glide. For a while I also used a waveski, which had far better wave performance than any other kayak I've been in - but I never got used to the seat belt system, and it wasn't the right size for my weight range. There are a couple surf kayak makers out there, most notably Mega in the UK, and Dick Wold and Mike Johnson in California.

However none of the surf kayaks I've paddled really offered what I was looking for, which was the waveski like performance in a decked kayak. A new boat from "Class V surf dogs" the UFO comes close, but I was looking for something with even more of a waveski hull. So I decided to build my own.

There are lots of resources out there for people who want to build wooden sea kayaks, but not much for people who want to build fiberglass kayaks. There is a good amount of information on building surf and sail boards (see this site for a good index of links). I wanted to put this site up for people who might be interested in building a boat of their own. While it is not a comprehensive set of instructions, it will hopefully provide some idea of what is involved.

Overview

The Goal is to build a moldless kayak (aka "Foamie", "one off"). With this approach you shape a kayak out of foam, and then glass over it, later removing the foam from the space in which you sit. With this you avoid the multiple steps of creating a mold from a plug first, and then laying up the kayak in a mold. For a surf kayak it also adds alot of stiffness to leave foam in the structure of the boat, as well as giving you near complete freedom in shaping the design, since you don't have to worry about how it will release from a mold.

Design

Design can begin at any time and doesn't require any particular tools or supplies, just your head.

This design discussion pertains to surf kayaks, building a boat for other types of uses will have different design goals and constraints. Almost every design decision you make is a trade off. To gain an advantage in one way, is to sacrifice some other aspect of the boat's performance.

I was designing a surf kayak that I wanted to be very high performance. In my opinion, the highest performance paddled surf craft out there are the South African and Australian waveskis. But these are not kayaks. I wanted the hull of a waveski (for performance) and the deck of a kayak for comfort and familiarity. Such a design is called a surf boot. The closest thing out there is a boat called Das Boot by Dick Wold. But this boat did not have the performance characteristics of a South African waveski - being based more on the finless, less agressive American waveski. And did not have the rails and hull bottom I was looking for.

To maximize performance on the wave I was willing to give up the following:

I wanted to go with agressive rails and fins - which make it harder to roll and harder to launch. Rounded rails towards the front for easier turning, and progressively harder rails towards the back.

Unlike almost all other kayaks, I wanted the seat close to the stern like on a recent design waveski or surfboard for tighter turning.

I studied the rocker and outline on a custom South African waveski as well as looking at other waveskis and surfboards - the rails and deck I simply shaped by eye and hand. I didn't go for much fancy hull patterns in the way of grooves, concaves, vees, textures etc. I did put a very light concave in the hull towards the nose, and some slight roll in the front part of the boat up to about the thighs which helps in rail to rail transition (but takes away on speed).

While most of the design was done in my head, I did play a little with a CAD program (found it too inflexible) and shaped a small model. I found shaping a small model to be the most rewarding way to visualize ideas.

Workshop prep

The space(s) you choose to work in are an important part of the process. During the shaping you will get styrofoam balls and dust everywhere, and during the layup you will want to have both ventilation and warmer temperatures. I hung painters plastic from the ceiling of my carport for the shaping which contained all the dust for cleanup. While shaping, lighting is also something you need to consider, as low light angle can help you see uneveness in your shape.

I have some other comments on costs and materials.

Thanks go to:

Leo Lekas, Randy Phillips, Mark Jarvis, Corran Addison, Dick Wold, Mike Francisco, Bill Luhrs, Ian Thompson who all contributed ideas and discussion for the boats design and construction.

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