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A Special Siskiwit LV Built
Back 2020, Jan picked up a Siskiwit LV Sea Kayak Drawing and decided to build a modified sea kayak from the drawings. He recently wrote about what he did and how it turned out: โAt the beginning of the pandemic I bought the plan from you. Although you did not recommend modifying the sizes, I tried it anyway. Today I am very happy that I did. I shortened the kayak to 82% by reducing the distance between the stations and decreased the plan to 90%. This resulted in a kayak with 4.3 m (14 feet 1 inch) and 49 cm (19.3 inches) wide at about 16 kg (35 pounds). Usually,โฆ
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How the Siskiwit LV Happened
Recently I was looking through old photos and came across a few of my old kayak building photos. Iโve pretty much given up building canoes and kayaks for the moment, but I do have a few that I would like to build in the future. Itโs interesting looking back from a perspective of 18 years after I built my first kayak. The first kayak that I built was a SOF using Cunninghamโs Building the Greenland Kayak book. I really liked the kayak, but it had way too much rocker to be practical at tripping, which is what I wanted it for. In retrospect, I should have just added an externalโฆ
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Siskiwit Bay Skin-on-Frame Drawings Updated
Recently, I got good feedback from a builder of the Siskiwit Bay SOF. I decided to dive into the kayak plans again and do a quick update. I donโt know how many of these have been built, but over 950 of the drawings have been downloaded. Itโs mostly the free version that people grab, but the free kayak plans version doesnโt offer all the nice things that the drawing package offers. The drawing package now comes with three different placements for the station that goes behind the seat and two different placement for the station forward the paddlerโs feet. This will allow builders to vary where the seat goes andโฆ
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New Siskiwit SOF Kayak Hits the Water
Tibor Berki from Sweden, the person behind RUGD clothing, completed an unique build of a Siskiwit SOF kayak. He used fiberglass-reinforced foam for the frames, added sealed bulkheads, used an ocean cockpit instead of a whitewater-style cockpit, and he added hatches. His builderโs log is detailed and fun to read. His build ended up at 13kg (28.6 pounds) with all the extras. He is debating on adding a skeg. In his building log, he mentions that he had problems with the dye he used, but I think it looks fantastic! I donโt own a SOF kayak anymore, but now I want one again because his looks so good. Check outโฆ
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Kayak Cockpit Placement Rule of Thumb
If youโre working from a set of sea kayaking plans, figuring out the kayak cockpit placement is easy. You just consult the diagrams. But, if itโs a historic replica or one of your own designs or if the plans didnโt include drawings of the cockpit area, finding the best placement becomes a challenge. This is a hurdle I faced when building my Siskiwit Bay and Siskiwit LV designs. After a day or two a research, I ended up coming up with several rule of thumbs for sea kayak cockpit placements. Any homebuilder could use these and come up with a good cockpit placement. Sea Kayak Cockpit Placement Rule of Thumbโฆ
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Free Kayak Plans and Free Canoe Plans
For years, PaddlingLight has been giving away the free drawings of historic and recent canoe and kayak, but I didnโt know how many plans people were downloading. In the last year I decided to start tracking just a few of the downloads to get a grasp on how many were actually being downloaded. I picked 5 of the 35 free drawings that I offer: a popular historic kayak design that has been built many times, a history canoe that has been built many times (most often in Italy), a canoe that looks interesting but hasnโt been built often (if at all), an original yost-style, skin-on-frame kayak and another historic kayakโฆ
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Belcher Island Kayak Plans
The Belcher Island Kayak was collected in 1958 from Great Whale River where it was built by โAdlaykokโ or Allaiquq. It appears as figure 46 in E.Y. Arimaโs Inuit Kayaks in Canada: A Review of Historical Records and Construction, Based Mainly on the Canadian Museum of Civilizationโs Collection. Arima notes that it was likely built for demonstration, and that its 22-foot length and 29.5-inch beam would make for a good trade kayak between the Belcher Islands and mainland. He also notes that itโs likely as much as a single paddler could handle by himself. The condition of the kayak was rather poor when the lines were taken. The bottom was collapsed andโฆ
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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. Itโs 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. Itโs 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 itโs slightly narrower width than plastic boats in this class. It could be built in cedar strip, plywood or possiblyโฆ
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Printed Canoe Plans and Kayak Plans Plus Electronic Nestings
PaddlingLight offers a significant number of historic canoe and kayak plans and several original designs. In the past, those free kayak plans and free canoe plans came as a drawing on one sheet of paper. The plans showed the stations at 1-foot intervals with the stems drawn over the station. Only my commercial plans and a few were available with nestings. Iโve decided to start offering nestings for all the plans. Iโm also offering a new service. Iโm printing the nesting and stem and station plans on 24- by 36-inch paper. These two new services come with a fee. While Iโve made these plans available without expecting to make anyโฆ
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FAQ: Siskiwit LV Sea Kayak
The Siskiwit LV sea kayak is an all-around, mid-sized, British-style sea kayak designed to maintain the playfulness of a 16-foot kayak but yield the speed and tracking of an 18-foot sea kayak. The sea kayak plans are designed for wood strip or cedar strip construction. Iโll add questions as Iโm asked. 1) Does the rear of the cockpit forms have a smooth transition so that the top of the entire coaming rim is essentially flat? Iโm asking because the Siskiwit Bay built with a recess seems to have a sharp transition. I will probably build it without the recess to allow more room for my 5โฒ -8โณ fiance (I amโฆ
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Siskiwit LV Sea Kayak Plans
The Siskiwit LV combines the quick maneuverability of a 16-foot day boat with the speed and tracking of a 18-foot touring kayak. This all-around, mid-sized British-style sea kayak suits a kayaker looking for a boat with good initial stability that is easy to edge and quick to turn. When the water gets rough, the Siskiwit LV feels more stable. It thrives in tidal flows, surf and waves. When packing like a backpacker, the Siskiwit LV provides enough room to mount a long tour. It will support you as you push your limits. The Siskiwit LV is the final refinement of a line of kayaks started from an anthropomorphically designed skin-on-frameโฆ
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