Igdlorssuit: Free Kayak Plans for the Boat Before Anas Acuta
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The Anas Acuta’s lines were originally developed from a kayak built by Emanuele Korneiliussen in Igdlorssuit for Kenneth Taylor in 1959. This kayak was measured and drawn by Duncan Winning in 1964 and those measurements have appeared in several places on the Internet. I had originally provided the lines of this Igdlorssuit kayak in a HULLS file, but now that FREE!ship is available, I’ve reentered the lines of this kayak.
The year was 1959. The place was Igdlorssuit (Illorsuit is the new spelling). University student Kenneth Taylor was sent by his professor to study the kayak and Inuit culture. While there Emanuele Korneiliussen built Ken a skin-on-frame kayak. In 1964, Duncan Winning surveyed the kayak, and he passed along the information to Geoff Blackford, who modified the size. Geoff built a boat from plywood based on these modifications and named the kayak the Anas Acuta. In 1972, Frank Goodman started to commercially produce the boat. (source: Paul Caffyn, The Long Journey Home for a Greenland Kayak, originally published in The Sea Canoeist) Valley Sea Kayaks still produces the Anas Acuta.
The Anas Acuta spawned a wave of British kayaks, and according to a family tree compiled by Duncan Winning those include: Nordkapp, Skerray, Aquanaut, Pintail, Avocet, Q-Boat, Island Kayaks’ Expedition, Newt, Qaarsut (an exact replica of the hull in fiberglass with a modern deck), and Qaarsut 550. I’ve also heard that the Romany was based on the AA/Pintail, which would mean a number of other kayaks like the Meridian, Zephyr, Explorer, Alaw, Alaw Bach, Xcite, Xplore also descend from this kayak.
Duncan Winning’s family tree also lists 18 other kayaks that descend from the Taylor kayak. More info on the original.
Free Kayak Plan Downloads and Package Downloads
The free linesplans are station and stem drawings overlaid on each other. The drawing package includes the full-sized 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.
Hydrostatics
- Design length : 16.543 [ft]
- Length over all : 16.543 [ft]
- Design beam : 1.745 [ft]
- Beam over all : 1.713 [ft]
- Design draft : 0.400 [ft]
- Mainframe location : 8.272 [ft]
- Water density : 63.989 [lbs/ft3]
- Appendage coefficient : 1.0000
Volume properties:
- Displaced volume : 3.083 [ft3]
- Displacement : 0.088 [tons]
- Block coefficient : 0.3735
- Prismatic coefficient : 0.5241
- Wetted surface area : 16.891 [ft2]
- Longitudinal center of buoyancy : 7.758 [ft]
- Vertical center of buoyancy : 0.267 [ft]
Mainframe properties:
- Mainframe area : 0.449 [ft2]
- Mainframe coefficient : 0.7126
Waterplane properties:
- Length on waterline : 13.112 [ft]
- Beam on waterline : 1.574 [ft]
- Waterplane area : 13.452 [ft2]
- Waterplane coefficient : 0.6518
- Waterplane center of floatation : 7.864 [ft]
- Entrance angle : 6.624 [degr.]
- Transverse moment of inertia : 1.898 [ft4]
- Longitudinal moment of inertia : 110.92 [ft4]
Initial stability:
- Transverse metacentric height : 0.882 [ft]
- Longitudinal metacentric height : 36.242 [ft]
It’s Been Built
This has been built a number of times, including once by me. I personally find the kayak a little tender, but my wife loves it. You can read my building log here: Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit: Follow along in these articles.
My building log includes my rational for selecting to do a semi-replica of this kayak. Included in the articles is good advice from several people who have paddle one or more of the traditional kayaks on the short list.
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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15 Comments
Chuck Gandy
Bryan,
Love the looks and history of the Iggy. I plan to build it. I can give you a dxf file of the stations, It’s less than 20 kb. Let me know.
Chuck
Bryan Hansel
Thanks Chuck, I have the dxf of the stations. I could post them if people want or need them. The 40mb of files include individual stations, hatch cut-outs, cockpits, etc…
Franck
Hello Bryan,
This would be really great if you could send me a copy of your station plans for the igdlorssuit ! I’d love to build that boat, but I’m completely lost with cad software :=(
I could upload the file on my provider server, and send you the link, so that everybody could download it !
Regards,
Franck
Bryan Hansel
The link is up for everyone.
Chris Paton
Hi again Bryan
I have now found your nessmuking website and couldn’t resist writing a comment about Illorsuit.
I live near Illorsuit and will be paddling there on my exped next year. I am posting a few photos of Illorsuit on my website soon.
Chris
Gary Grzybek
Has anyone ever built a hybrid of the Iggy? A plywood hull with a skin deck sounds interesting. I suppose the hard part would be figuring out the bow (deck) area because it’s quite pinched off. I paddled a Ken Taylor replica and it was magical.
Gary
Bryan Hansel
It someone did. I believe it was called the zipper boat, because the skin deck could be opened completely using a zipper.
Mike Cochrane
I built a Nick Schade designed Night Heron hybrid from a kit from Chesapeake — stitch and glue hull with cedar stripped deck. Love it! Now I’d like to make the Iggy in the same hybrid fashion. This would be my first attempt at a non-kit boat.
The files I downloaded from this page have the hull strakes in Free!Ship plans where I can print the hull panel developments, as well as the stations in a nice PDF. Thanks, Bryan, for the great work! There is, however, no deck on the Free!Ship plan.
A couple of guys from my church would like to do a first-time build together of the Iggy, all as stitch and glue. The file Igdlorssuit_FV_S_Deck_afterbuild.fbm has the deck strakes, too; but not in Free!Ship readable format. They are readable in the free version of DelftShip, but there is no way to export them or print them. I’m stuck ,unless I buy a full copy of DelftShip just to print the deck strakes.
Has anybody made a PDF or DXF of the Iggy deck stake developments?
Thanks!
Bryan Hansel
Hi, Mike,
Tough questions. :)
I left the deck off the developable version because the deck I drew isn’t developable — it’s a deck designed for cedar strips — that’s what you’re seeing in the Igdlorssuit_FV_S_Deck_afterbuild.fbm file. That’s not an issue for you because you’re using a strip-built deck, but it makes it slightly more difficult for your friends who want to do all stitch-and-glue. For you, just use the deck from the pdf file after you print it. If you need a copy of the file with my cedar deck, email and I’ll send you a 2.6 file format version.
For your friends, consider a simple plywood radius deck. Chris Kulczycki describes the method in The New Kayak Shop: More Elegant Wooden Kayaks Anyone Can Build. It’s quick and the sheet of plywood for the deck is cut after the hull is completed. This method results in a classic-Anas-Acuta-style look.
Let me know if this works for you. If not, drop me an email and we can figure something out for your friends.
Mike Cochrane
Good idea for the deck. I’ve got “The New Kayak Shop” and helped a friend build a Chesapeake 17, so I know the method you’re referring to. Personally, I like the look of a chambered deck because it seems to aesthetically match the hard chined hull well. But a lot of guys like the rounded deck and maybe these guys are those.
I’d like to see a copy of the cedar deck in the 2.6 file format if you’ve got time to attach that to an email. Thanks! I’m glad I found your blog.
Mike
Bryan Hansel
I dropped the file into the email. I also added pdfs and offsets of the hull plates into the download box.
Mike Cochrane
Hi again Brian!
The small group of men at our church have greatly enjoy working together to build the Iggy from scratch. A couple of us have made kits, but this was our first attempt at punching the plan on to the okoume and going from there.
We’ve got the deck just about stripped in (we’re doing a hybrid using the PDF files you sent for a plywood hull and cedar strips on the stations for the deck) and it should be a kayak pretty soon. I’ll send you photos.
We’ve had a couple issues I thought I would ask you about:
1. We had an issue in the stitch-n-glue hull at the bow. The upper strake, the shear, would not stand on the edge of the bottom hull strake without buckling the material (stitched from stern to bow). The shear line would no longer be fair. We resolved this by allowing the shear strake to overlap the bottom strake, in a relaxed position, and then drew a line at the overlap. We then sawed off a small piece at that line – at the bow tip of the bottom stake. We had to remove a slice of about 3/4″ high by about 4″ long. A triangular gap of about 1/2″ resulted in the keel, but we filled the keel with epoxy fillet (wood flour), anyway, and it looks fine. This is above the water line, so the shape of the boat in the water is not affected. Have you run into that before? Maybe we had a problem in the transfer of the plan…
2. The boat seems to be slightly shorter than the specs. Everything if fitting just fine, but it comes in at just a hair over 16′ in total length. That’s ok with us. It looks sweet. But we’ve got some bigger guys and in the future we might want to make an Iggy at about 17′ with a bit more beam (and displacement). How would we do that? Can we just enlarge the print percentage of the PDF file, e.g., print at 106% for both the strakes and stations? Seems like that would keep things in proportion.
This has been a great project to gather together some men of our church who needed the “fellowship.” Thanks!
Mike
Bryan Hansel
Hi, Mike,
I’ve never personally run into the issue that you experienced and I haven’t heard about it before and other plywood boats have been built from this plan, so I’m not sure what the issue was. Feel free to send me pictures. It seems slightly odd that the length would be different, so there might be a printing issue. I’m just not sure.
For an increase in length, as long as everything stay proportional it should turn out fine. I’d actually suggestion switching to a cedar strip. The hull is easy to plank and goes quickly — perfect for a group project. One team works on the port and the other on the starboard.
Thanks,
Bryan
josh
I can’t tell if these plans are for a skin-on-frame kayak or not? I’m interested in building a lashed skin-on-frame kayak with ballistic nylon. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a kit or plans? Thanks.
Bryan Hansel
These plans are for cedar strip. You could use them to make a SOF kayak, but you’d have to determine which stations that you want to use. I may add SOF versions at some point in the future.