Free Kayak and Canoe Plans
Free kayak and canoe plans from history, from PaddlingLight authors and from around the web.
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Free Plans: Long Nose Ojibway Canoe
In the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, Howard Chapelle tells us that the most common type of Ojibway canoe northwest and west of Lake Superior was the “long-nose” form. The form shows a straight sheer, only slight rocker near the stems and a steeply upturned sheer near the stems. The stems were rounded and full. Chapelle seems to think that the combination features resulted in a clumsy and unfair looking canoe. He notes that the appearance didn’t affect the seaworthiness or paddling qualities. Later, he writes that Adney, the person who collected the lines, thought the long-nose canoes originated with the Dakotas before the Cree and Ojibway…
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Free Canoe Plans: Malecite Racing Canoe of 1888
In 1888, Jim Paul and Peter Polchies built the Malecite Racing Canoe of 1888 for Lt. Col. Herbert Dibble of Woodstock notes Howard I. Chapelle in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. This 19-foot, 30-inch canoes, which appears as figure 66 in his book, shows flare in the center and tumblehome towards the ends. Its sleek hull looks fast. The original was built lightly built and much decorated. There’s something about Malecite canoes. The lines seem to draw my eyes, and the canoe in this free plan does the same. I imagine that it’s a tender but fast ride, and I think it looks like a fast…
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Free Kayak Plan: Koryak Kayak
This style of kayak, used in the Sea of Okhotsk, is the only distinctive Asiatic type, says Howard I. Chapelle in the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It is a hunting boat designed for calm waters. Chapelle notes that it shares the same form as hunting and fowling stiffs used in America. He also notes that the Koryaks weren’t daring canoemen and stayed out of rough water. Paddlers of the boat drawn in this week’s free kayak plans used two ping-pong-looking paddles to move the boat. It is, reportedly, highly maneuverable. This kayak was seriously easy to model. It’s also the shortest boat that I’ve modeled in…
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Free Kayak Plan: Southern Alaskan Baidarka Plans
The Southern Alaskan Baidarka appears as figure 179 in Edwin Tapppan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boat of North America. This is the only tandem kayak in the book, and the only known style of kayak that was built with more than one seating position — sometimes baidarkas had three. Chapelle notes that this kayak has the stern like the Kodiak kayaks but the hull and bifid bow of the better known Aleutian boats. The original boat in the Washington State Historical Society and Museum is damaged. John Heath took the lines in 1962 and corrected for the damage in his plans. This by far…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Hunting Canoe
This is the third and last Têtes de Boule canoe that appears in Edwin Tappan Adney’s and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Its 11-foot length falls between the other two and seems to combine attributes of a modern-style solo tripping boat and a pack canoe. At the 6-inch waterline, the canoe displaces 360 lbs, which means a boat built to 40 lbs can carry 320 lbs. and still have 6 inches of freeboard. Like the other Têtes de Boule canoes, this one has high ends, a flat bottom and rocker that rises near the ends. The ends are narrow, but slightly less so…
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How to Calculate Canoe Seat Positions
After you build a canoe hull, possibly from PaddlingLight’s free canoe plans, and trim it out with thwarts, gunwales and a yoke, you need to add seats. Historically, few canoes had seats built into them — the paddlers either knelt or sat on gear. While that’s still practical, it’s much more comfortable to sit on an actual canoe seat. If the canoe plan didn’t include seat positions, then you need to calculate that position yourself. Luckily, with a little high-school level algebra — and you thought it would never come in handy — calculating a canoe seat position is painless. Canoe Seat Position Calculations Part of canoeing and seamanship is…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Two-Fathom Canoe
The Têtes de Boule Two-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 103 in Edwin Tappan Adney’s and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It looks like Adney used this canoe as one of the two canoes he based model number MM 98 on. The model appears on page 62 of John Jennings’ Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney. Figure 101 in Bark and Skin is a photograph of several Têtes de Boule canoes. The Têtes de Boule were skilled canoe builders and built canoes for the Hudson’s Bay Company. They considered this 14-foot canoe a family canoe. Like other Têtes de Boule canoes,…
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Free Canoe Plan: Têtes de Boule Hunter’s Canoe
The Têtes de Boule Hunter’s canoe appears as Figure 102 in Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. I believe that Adney modeled the canoe in 1930. A picture of the model appears on page 63 in John Jennings’ Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney. This is a slightly different canoe than I’ve modeled before. It’s only 9 feet 8 inches. There aren’t many canoe plans, let alone free canoe plans, on the market for a small pack canoe like this. Loaded to the 4-inch waterline, the canoe carries 145 lbs. At the 6-inch waterline, which Cliff Jacobson…
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Free Kayak Plans: North Greenland Kayak
Mystic Seaport Museum’s North Greenland kayak appears in Mark Starr’s Building a Greenland Kayak. Starr notes that Admiral Byrd, an Arctic explorer collected the kayak. He thinks it might have been during the 1925 MacMillan expedition to northwest Greenland. This kayak is much different than other kayaks that I’ve drawn. It has a flat bottom, which results from the use of three-part ribs instead of a single bent rib. It’s sides almost rise steeply from the chine to the sheer. The cockpit area looks like a bubble that rises high in a short distance. The turn of the rear stem seems subtle and almost non-existent. For a cedar strip kayak…
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Free Kayak Plan: U.S. Coast Guard Museum Greenland Kayak
The U.S. Coast Guard Museum Greenland Kayak was collected in 1967 and then donated to the museum. When Mark Starr surveyed the kayak, he noted that the skin had shrunk enough to crush the center of the boat. He drew it as he thought it should look with an almost flat keel. He also noted that there was evidence that the boat once had an exterior mounted skeg. The kayak’s sheerline has a subtle curve, and its multi-chine hull shape looks like the Goodnow Kayak. The cockpit coaming is only 12-1/2 inches wide. I doubt someone who weighed very much could fit in the cockpit opening, so I drew it…
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Free Kayak Plan: Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak 1867
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…
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Free Kayak Plan: MacMillan Kayak
I finished this kayak on Thanksgiving, a harvest festival celebrated in the United States. Tradition says that the original celebration occurred in the early 1600s and celebrated the European settlers surviving their first year with the help of the natives. It’s a grand story that didn’t turn out that great for the natives. Here I am 400 years later, digitizing kayaks that someone used for hunting and the survival of family. Something that they were probably thankful for. Now, we use these kayaks for recreation. Perhaps this kayak plan exemplifies that use. Rear Admiral MacMillan, an explorer, collected the MacMillan kayak at some point between 1908 and 1954. He was…
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Free South Greenland Kayak Plans
The South Greenland kayak, Figure 208 in the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, is a more modern design than both the Southwestern Greenland kayaks (Figure 206 and 207) that appear as free plans in earlier posts. Chapelle notes that later kayaks had greater rake of the stems, reduced deadrise and greater flare. The sheerline seems less sweeping than the older types, too. He claims that these more modern designs were faster and quicker turning than the old types. In the drawings, a bow plate is shown fixed to the bow. This kayak seemed easy to model. The chines and low deadrise faired directly into the stems. On…
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Hudson’s Bay Company North Canoe Plans
The voyagers of the Hudson’s Bay Company needed big canoes to transport trade goods into the American interior. The 30-foot Hudson’s Bay Company 4-1/2-Fathom North Canoe fit the bill. This 59-inch-wide canoe typically transported five bales of general trade good, one bale and two rolls of tobacco, one bale of kettles, one case of guns, one case of hardware, two bags of lead shot, one bag of flour, one keg of sugar, two kegs of gunpowder and 10 kegs of wine. In addition to the trade goods, each member of the crew brought one bale of private property, one bag of corn, a partial keg of grease, bedrolls and canoe…
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1865 St. Francis Canoe Plans
The 1865 St. Francis 2-Fathom Canoe appears as Figure 80 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It represents the typical form of a late-19th century St. Francis canoe, which, as described by Howard I. Chapelle, has high-peaked ends, a quick upsweep to the top of the stems, a vertical end profile with a short radius turn from the keel and rocker that occurs only in the ends of the canoe. By the middle of the 19th century, Chapelle notes that the St. Francis were building a fine canoe and selling them to sportsmen. These models became the standard for hunting and fishing in Quebec. Because of…
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