Canoe and Kayak Building the Light and Easy Way: How to Build Tough, Super-Safe Boats in Kevlar, Carbon, or Fiberglass | Date: 28 April 2011, 08:50
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Canoe and Kayak Building the Light and Easy Way: How to Build Tough, Super-Safe Boats in Kevlar, Carbon, or Fiberglass
By Sam Rizzetta
* Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
* Number Of Pages: 256
* Publication Date: 2009-03-25
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0071597352
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780071597357
Product Description:
The first quick-and-easy composite construction method for canoes and kayaks
This book is certain to appeal to any paddler with a DIY bent. Master craftsman Sam Rizzetta presents three attractive innovations: a new building method that makes Kevlar and carbon-fiber boats cheap and feasible for home builders; an ergonomically designed canoe that makes paddling easier and more comfortable; and a foam-flotation installation method that makes canoes and kayaks safe and unsinkable.
Chapter 1
Lightweight, strong, durable, safe, efficient to paddle, easy
to build, and good looking—these are attributes most of us
desire in a modern canoe or kayak. Materials like carbon fiber,
Kevlar, and fiberglass, reinforced with epoxy
resin, have made these design goals achievable,
and building such a boat yourself can not only
cost less than purchasing a manufactured boat
but also be more rewarding and fun.
This book describes two convenient methods
for building a lightweight composite canoe or
kayak. In the first method, which I call the fabric
form method, a skeleton form is built from plywood
and wood strips and covered with a taut
fabric as a base for laminating the hull. In the
second method, which is a simple modification
of the first, an existing canoe or kayak is used as
the form over which the fabric is stretched, further
reducing labor and building time.
As you move through the chapters of this
book, you will find the building process described
step by step, along with the background needed
to build a safe and successful small boat of com
posite
materials. Building a boat, however, is a
synthesis of numerous interconnected techniques
and processes, so be sure to read and understand
the entire book before planning a project and
starting to build. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the
construction method and the tools and materials
required. In Chapters 4 and 5, you will begin cutting
wood and setting up your building form.
Chapter 6 addresses how to assemble the
fabric-covered form on which the composite
hull will be laminated. This is the heart of
the construction process, and it involves very
basic, straightforward woodworking. Chapter 7
describes how to save time and cost by using an
old canoe as a form to support the fabric. The
process of covering the form and turning layers
of cloth and ep?oxy into a hull is covered in
Chapters 8 and 9. The idea of a fabric-covered
form can be adapted to building in smaller
scales, so you will also find a description of
how to make a composite scale model canoe in
Chapter 10. Building a model will allow you to
become familiar with the process before risking
a lot of labor and expensive materials on a
full-size boat, and I especially recommend it if
you are new to boat-building and working with
epoxy. Chapters 11 through 14 detail the steps
of converting a bare hull into a finished canoe
or kayak. Readers experienced in building boats
and working with epoxy may be able to safely
skim or skip some sections or chapters.
Chapter 15, perhaps the most important,
addresses flotation and safety. Here you will learn
how to incorporate a lightweight flotation system
into your canoe or kayak during construction
or add flotation to a finished boat, including a
factory-made one. This system allows a solo paddler
to get back into a capsized canoe or kayak
without assistance after an upset in deep water.
Both the flotation and the reentry procedures are
described in detail. This innovation provides so
much more safety and assurance that I no longer
venture far from shore without it. All my personal
canoes and most of my kayaks are outfitted
with this system. The flotation is inside the hull
only and can be incorporated as a structural part
of the boat, thereby saving weight and increasing
strength. Please read Chapter 15 before planning
the final design details of your boat. All of the
safety flotation information is assembled in this
one long chapter for easy reference and sharing
with others.
Chapter 16 explains the basic parameters
of canoe design as they relate to performance,
includes complete plans for three solo canoes, and
provides advice on modifying the three designs
or any other. Two of the included designs can be
completed as decked recreational kayaks or safer
wilderness trippers. I find solo boats so much
fun that I avoid paddling tandems, but you can
certainly make tandem canoes with my method,
and I’ve included tips for tandems wherever the
instructions deviate from making smaller solo
canoes. You can also use the fabric form method
to make other boat designs not described here.
Most canoe and kayak designs intended for wood
strip construction can be either used directly or
readily adapted, and Appendix B includes sources
for such designs.
In Chapter 17, you will learn how to build a
very lightweight composite paddle. Like model
building, making a paddle is another small, more
manageable project that can help you gain experience
working with wood, foam, epoxy, fiberglass,
and carbon fiber before starting a larger boat
project.
A Canoe Quest
My quest for better canoes had early roots. My
earliest childhood memory is boating at age
three. While on summer vacation in Michigan
in July 1945, my father took me fishing. My oneyear-
old brother had to stay back in the cabin with
my mother; there were advantages to being three
years old. I remember pushing off from shore at
early dawn in a rented canoe. Sitting amid the
many ribs inside the wooden canoe seemed like
being within the skeleton of a whale. I could see
little else but the canoe ribs in the morning fog.
It was scary to see the shore fade out of sight in......................................
Summary: How I built a wierd piece of floating plastic
Rating: 2
There are some excellent books out on building skin-on-frame kayaks using modern materials -- this isn't one of them. The author is very good at impressing us with his credentials, but lamely wastes most of the book upon a pet project that won't work for anybody looking to build either a seagoing, estuary, lake or river kayak OR a canoe OR small boat.
As for the other half of the full title's implicit promise -- i.e., showing one how to build a BOAT (e.g., a recreational row-boat, or a small tender for a yacht), well that is completely ignored, making this book essentially a rip-off for buyers expecting to get, as it advertises, instructions on BOAT-building ...
I recommend "Building Skin-on-frame Boats" by Robert Morris and also "Building Your Kevlar Canoe" by James Moran for the boatbuilders reading this review, supplemented by articles in Wooden Boat on small craft construction using Kevlar-on-wood-frame technique.
I will leave the recommendations for kayak building in Kevlar (etc.) to those with good experience building/using those vessels.
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