Free Kayak and Canoe Plans
Free kayak and canoe plans from history, from PaddlingLight authors and from around the web.
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Fram Museum 1888 West Greenland Kayak Plans
When I visited the Fram Museum in Olso, Norway, I fell in love with a West Greenland kayak displayed as part of the Fram collection. The kayak is Fram number 176. Native Greenlanders built the kayak in 1888 for one of arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen’s colleagues after Nansen’s successful crossing of the Greenland icecap (Sea Kayaker article about the Fram kayaks). The kayak has a sweeping sheer, little stern rocker, and an extra partial chine half-way between the chine and sheer near the bow. Leather and bone decklines decorate the kayak’s deck. Plates, pegged to the boat, protect the bow and stern. The lines appear in Harvey Golden’s Kayaks of…
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Free Walrus Kayak Plans
In 1921, Norman L. Skene surveyed the 1921 Peabody Museum’s Southwest Greenland kayak. Taken by the lines, he drew up plans for a westernized version, which he named Walrus. For the Walrus, he widened the boat to 22 inches, lowered the deadrise and designed a larger cockpit. Construction changed from bent ribs and animal skin to dimensional lumber, truss-like framing and canvas skin. He published the free plans in the June 1923 issue of The Rudder. By the time Skene published the article, many kayaks of his design had already been built. Builders noted that the design was seaworthy and easy to learn to paddle. Recently, George Putz covered building…
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Free Plans: 1921 Southwest Greenland Kayak
In 1921, Norman L. Skene took the lines off of the Peabody Museum’s Southwest Greenland kayak. Those lines, drawn by Howard I. Chapelle, appear as figure 207 in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. The kayak is similar in length and width to the 1883 Southwestern Greenland kayak with a few differences. The 1921 kayak shows little rocker, whereas, according to Chapelle, the 1883 kayak shows about the most amount used in a southwestern style. The 1921 boat shows both less deadrise and less flare than the 1883 boat. Also, the sheer line is less sweeping than the 1883 kayak. Chapelle notes that both the 1883 and…
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Free Kayak Plans: 1883 Southwestern Greenland Kayak
The original survey for the 1883 Southwestern Greenland kayak appears in The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Figure 206). Howard I. Chapelle, the surveyor, writes that this kayak represent one of the last southwestern Greenland boats of the old style, a style characterized by a strong sweeping sheer at the bow and stern. This kayak shows what Chapelle believed was close to the maximum amount of rocker used in a southwestern-style kayak. The original survey shows bone plates pegged to the bow and stern to protect the kayak from landing and launch on ice. Chapelle writes that the old form was a fast and handy hunting boat.…
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Free Canoe Plan: 1898 Passamaquoddy Ocean Canoe
The 1898 Passamaquoody Decorated Ocean Canoe comes from page 82, Figure 74 of Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. The text notes that this is the last known canoe of this style built. Tomah Joseph of Princeton, Maine built the canoe based on a cedar and canvas porpoise-hunting canoe. It has similar pinched ends and rounded tumblehome as the Modern Malecite St. John River Canoe. Length over all: 17ft 4inDesign beam: 36inDesign draft: 0.436inDisplacement: 510lbLength of waterline: 15.8ftWetted surface area: 29.5ft^2Optimum capacity: 300-800lbPounds to immerse an inch: 145lb The linesplans show the profile, plans and station view of this canoe. Free Canoe…
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Free Canoe Plan – Modern Malecite St. John River Canoe
This cedar canoe drawing is taken from Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle’s The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. It appears on page 79. Adney surveyed the original in 1895. He notes that the boat shows moderate sheer and low ends. For this set of free plans, I left the station shape and stem shape alone, and I modified the rocker and sheer. The original drawing shows the canoe with little to no rocker–I prefer a canoe that has some rocker–so I added a similar amount of rocker as seen in Prospector canoes. When I changed the rocker, I changed the sheerline, because I felt the additional rocker…
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Siskiwit Bay Multi-Chined Kayak Plans for Plywood Building
Description: The Siskiwit Bay MC is all-around fast mid-sized British-style touring kayak designed for plywood building. This kayak suits a medium to heavy paddler looking for good initial stability and with increased flare above the waterline lots of secondary stability. As the water gets rougher, this kayak feels more stable. It’s a fast design slightly more efficient than most British kayaks in its class. Designed by Bryan Hansel. Experimental: Since the Siskiwit Bay plans became available on the Internet, I’ve received requests for a plywood version of the kayak. The SB was originally designed as a multi-chined boat for plywood building using the excellent HULLS software. I’ve taken the original…
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Layout Panels from Hulls
Note: I do NOT support any of the Hulls files on this website. If you’re interested in the plans that I provide, click to see my Canoe and Kayak plans. You don’t need to know how to use HULLS to use those plans. Hulls is a boat design program that is easy to learn and hard to master, but it’s grand fun to be able to design your own canoe or kayak, and then be able to build one. You can see some designs here. The main question I get from people downloading my designs is, how do you get the panels layout numbers. Here’s how: The files I posted…
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Free Aleutian Baidarka Kayak Plans
Free plans for building an Aleutian Baidarka Kayak using the Hulls boat design program.
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Notus Racing and Cruising Canoe: An exercise in using FREE!ship
Using the Notus Racing and Cruising Canoe as the subject, this tutorial shows you how to import offsets into Free!Ship and create decks and sails. Also, included is a spreadsheet to make offset import easy, and the imported plans for the Notus for free.
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Free Kayak Plans From Glen Smith
Glen Smith often contributor to the Kayak Forum and moderator at the Bear Mountian Canoe Forum has provided the following two kayak designs for free.
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Igdlorssuit: Free Kayak Plans for the Boat Before Anas Acuta
Igdlorssuit: Free Kayak Plans for the Boat Before Anas Acuta
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Siskiwit Bay Builder Photos
Pictures from home builders of the Siskiwit Bay. If you have pictures you’d like to share, please, contact us. Thanks. Drawings for this kayak are available. Jim Smith Project finished March 2014 Jim writes: I have completed construction of a completely 3D printed, customized Kayak. The Kayak measures 16ft 8in [5.08m] long and cost around $500 to make. It is made of ABS plastic, machine screws, brass threaded inserts and a little bit of silicone caulk. That’s it. And it floats. And I can Kayak around in it. In order to print such large, solid sections of Kayak, I had to modify my home-built, large scale 3D printer to print…
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Free Kayak Plans – Siskiwit Bay
The Siskiwit Bay is all-around fast mid-sized British-style touring kayak. This solid boat suits a medium to heavy paddler looking for good initial stability and with increased flare above the waterline lots of secondary stability. As the water gets rougher, this kayak feels more stable. It's a fast design slightly more efficient than most British kayaks in its class. When built with a Layback Lounge, it's an easy roller.
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Goodnow Kayak Free Plans
The 16' 8" Goodnow kayak is stunning. It's lines flow beautifully and it begs to be built and paddled. At 17 5/8" wide, I'd have a hard time fitting into it, so I decided to model the kayak for a possible upscale and build. Included here is the FREE!ship file for your download and some information about the kayak.
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