Free Kayak Plan: Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak 1867
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In Building a Greenland Kayak, Mark Starr writes that this kayak, collected in 1867, is the most beautiful kayak that he’s drawn. He believes that it represents a kayak in its purist form; just five sweeping curves define its shape. Although noted as a Labrador kayak, it’s actually a Greenland-style boat.
While drawing the kayak for these free plans, I didn’t encounter any real problems. The simple curves essentially faired themselves with only a little help from the computer. It’s a pretty simple kayak. I drew the fore-deck to the original drawings, so even in cedar strip, the boat will look like a replica. Near the cockpit, I attempted to approximate what the skin would look like when pulled and sewn to the cockpit coaming. The boat shouldn’t present any difficulties during a cedar strip build.
Specifications
Length: 18 feet 4-1/2 inches
Width: 19 5/8 inches
Free Kayak Plan Downloads and Package Downloads
The free linesplans are station and stem drawings overlaid on each other. They are drawn at full size. The drawing package includes linesplan and each station and stem drawn separately on a PDF that prints full sized on when printed on the right paper size, usually ARCH D. You can cut these out and glue them to plywood to cut full-sized forms.
Recommended Books to Buy Before Building
Building Strip-Planked Boats The newest book by kayak and canoe building authority, Nick Schade. A must have.
The Strip-Built Sea Kayak: Three Rugged, Beautiful Boats You Can Build The gold standard of kayak building books. Clearly explains all the sets of boat building from tools to epoxy work. There are so many tricks and tips in this book that you’ll be able to save time.
Kayakcraft: Fine Woodstrip Kayak Construction Presents a slightly different way to build cedar strip kayaks. Lots of great ideas.
The New Kayak Shop: More Elegant Wooden Kayaks Anyone Can Build If stitch and glue is your thing, then this is the book to get.
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6 Comments
Jonthan Bornman
I like what you are doing with these drawings; they look great! I also like that you are doing it as “shareware” offering. I tried to download the free plans and got one page… end view of the kayak but no table of offsets or lines drawing. What did I do wrong?
Thanks,
Jonathan
Bryan Hansel
I’m glad you like it. You didn’t do anything wrong. The plans include the station and stems in a 1:1 scale as a pdf. You can print it off at a copyshop and use the print for stations and stems. The linesplan is the clickable image below the “Specifications” section. I’m not including a table of offsets.
Simon
Brian,
I am thinking about building this kayak in SOF for its sheer beauty. I am 6’2″ tall and 170lbs will the kayak be ok for my size??
I am also concerned about stability where I am a novis. Could the beam be pushed out an inch or so? I am a boatbuilder so I don’t have any concerns with fairing lines. Or should I just plan on getting used to a tippy Kayak.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks, Simon.
Bryan Hansel
I love the look of this kayak also. At 4 inches of draft the displacement is 188 lbs, and the sheerline is 7 inches, so I suspect with the current width, it’d only work well as a rolling kayak for you. The low deck might also be a problem depending on your shoe size.
Taking the width out to 22 inches gets you 208 lbs of displacement at 4 inches. As for stability, with the width increase, it goes from KM=0.79 to KM=0.91. That’s more stable than the NDK Explorer and other British-style kayaks. Personally, I’d call that really stable.
I’d also change the deck on this one to an elliptical or a simple radius deck tall enough for your shoe size and maybe 11 to 12 inches at the cockpit coaming. I’d also build it with a keyhole cockpit.
Simon castle
Brian,
Thanks for all the information, I think it is worth trying the modifications. I haven’t seen anything else with such clean and simple lines, of course the flat deck lends to this, which I may have to change as you suggest.
If I go ahead with the build I will send some photos along.
One last question, do you think these modifications would have a negative affect on the kayak? Should I go with one of you other designs?
Thanks again,
Simon
Thanks, Simon.
Bryan Hansel
It’s hard to say, but it will probably be fine. Looking forward to the photos.