Super Secret Kayak Design

A couple of years ago, I designed this kayak for someone in China. He never got around to building it, or at least he never let me know if he built it. It’s been sitting on my harddrive since then. Recently, I pulled it up and refined it a bit to add extra stability. This kayak falls into the recreational touring class. It’s 15 feet long with a touch of rocker. It should cruise along nicely in the 3 to 4 knot range and feel really solid for beginners despite it’s slightly narrower width than plastic boats in this class. It could be built in cedar strip, plywood or possibly as a SOF.

It was originally called the Istaqa 15, but I don’t know what I was thinking when I named it that. I think something Lake Superior inspired like Silver Islet, Sweetland Island or Nipigon might be better.

Specifications

Length: 15 feet
Width: 22 13/16 inches
Depth at front of cockpit: 12 inches
Depth at back of cockpit: 7 3/4 inches
Waterline length: 12 feet 10 inches
Waterline beam: 21 3/4 inches
Draft: 4 1/8 inches
Prismatic coefficient: 0.47
Wetted surface: 18.657 sq. feet

Resistance

1 knots: 0.24 lbs
2 knots: 0.86 lbs
3 knots: 1.78 lbs
4 knots: 3.59 lbs
4.5 knots: 5.30 lbs
5 knots: 8.12 lbs

Linesplan

Stability Chart

Build It

I’m up to 10 kayaks and four canoes now and don’t have the room for more boats, so although I want to build this, I can’t. If you want to build a prototype of a 15-foot kayak, I’ll draw up the plans for your method of building. Plywood is the most risky on a prototype, Yost-style SOF is the second riskiest and cedar strip should be a somewhat easy build. The chines are the hard part with this kayak. Please, note that I’m no longer providing SOF or plywood plans of this kayak. Cedar strip plans are available.

I’m giving away free plans for this if you can guarantee to me that you’ll build it. Drop me an email at publisher@paddlinglight.com if you’re interested. Before you email, you have to guarantee that you will build this. The way this will work is you’ll send my $100 and then if you build it within 1 year, I’ll send you the $100 back.

First Builder Reports

From Paul S.: Wants to roll at first but after a few minutes getting used to it, it ran straight and fast.  I estimate about 42 lbs. I can only compare it to the flat bottomed plastic ones  -Pelican and a few other brands we have around that rental places stock – which have high initial stability but are sluggish to paddle in comparison.

Because I was used to canoeing and paddling rental kayaks, it took me about 5 minutes to feel really comfortable in my boat.  Less for my kids.  So it is by no means scary tippy, but infinitely more responsive.