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Choice of kit maufacturer

Oldpro

Oldpro

Paddler
Joined
Jan 21, 2006
Messages
169
Location
Placitas, New Mexico, USA
For a large number of us, Pygmy kits are the best choice for a lot of reasons, and we've just seen keabird's CLC triple. Has anybody had experience with other plywood designs such as Roy Folland's, or Waters Dancing, or others?

Oldpro
 
I have been really happy with CLC, but I have to mention Redfish kayaks. Joe is a great guy and his boats are incredible. When I get around to building a single, I will definitely be building one of his.
 
I've been quite envious watching all the folks building thier Pygmy boats. I'm more inclined towards a cedar strip boat, though. I've been looking closely at the Redfish website and exchanged a couple of emails with Joe at Redfish. At the moment, I'm leaning heavily toward the Redfish King. I'd like to drive down to Port Townsend to demo a couple of Redfish's boats before I make my final decision.

However, before I can even think about building a new boat, I need a place to build it. When I moved last summer I had to give up my fully equipped woodshop. I've been concentrating over the winter on getting my new shop built. The shop is coming along nicely and I now have the building completed and just yesterday had the electrical subpanel installed. I still need to install all of the wiring, insulation, drywall and ceiling, though, before it will be a shop. I'm hoping to have it pretty much completed by the end of the summer so I can build a boat over the winter.

Of course, I'll be documenting the build here at WCP. I plan on setting up an old digital camera in the corner of my shop to take time lapse photos every minute while I'm in the shop working. At 30fps, that works out to 2 seconds of video for every hour of build time.
 
Steve_Fairbairn said:
I plan on setting up an old digital camera in the corner of my shop to take time lapse photos every minute while I'm in the shop working. At 30fps, that works out to 2 seconds of video for every hour of build time.
Click to expand...
I think that's how they made Da Vinci Code.
 
Rootman said:
I think that's how they made Da Vinci Code.
Click to expand...

LOL! :lol:

Andy and I met a fellow a while back at Stave Lake who had built a Waters Dancing kit. He said that he really enjoyed the build process and found it quite easy to construct. He had done a very nice job of building it. I can't remember which specific model it was but it was one of their larger touring boats.

Shortly after he built it, he took a couple of rolling lessons and then he paddled it from Bella Bella to Vancouver -- on the west side of the Island!

*****
 
Steve, I'm hoping to attend Meet at the Beach. Feel free to try my boat (a Redfish King) out if you'll be there, or maybe another time we paddle together again.
 
RobertM said:
Steve, I'm hoping to attend Meet at the Beach. Feel free to try my boat (a Redfish King) out if you'll be there, or maybe another time we paddle together again.
Click to expand...

I won't be at the meet but if we get the chance to paddle in June you're also more than welcome to take my Redfish Springrun for a spin.
 
Orca shop is about 10 mins away from me in port moody. I've talked to the guy that runs it (sorry forgot his name) when i needed some advice fixing up my old double and he was very helpful and took his time explaining things even though there was no money in it for him. That tells me a lot about a person. Also the boats coming out of the shop look very well built and definetely beautiful. few weeks back i've talked to a guy at deep cove that owns and paddles a kayak he built at Orca and he was happy with it.
 
Orca Boats is owned and operated by Rod Tait. You can build a boat in his shop with his guidance and experience or you can build from several boat plans that Rod has designed -- check his website for prices.

http://www.orcaboats.ca

btw: you can meet Rod and probably view a number of his boats that have been built by his students at the Meet at the Beach this coming weekend at Barnet Marine Park.

*****
 
Thanks, looks good. I dont think I will make it to the meet at the beach, but things may change. I think the only reason I might go with Redfish over Orca would be the fact that Redfish is about 5 minutes from my house.
 
Then there is always this way.

RM-15-0114.jpg

Free Image Hosting
 
Thanks for the kind compliments. I really enjoyed that build and design process. I had a stitch and glue designed up in Cadkey, but I ran into trouble un-folding the panels when there was a twist in the curve. :oops: The software could only accurately un-fold a simple single curve. When I hit that problem, I then bought the Pygmy kit. That worked out great, since I was able to build an just concentrate on glassing techniques. Then last summer I began to toy with the idea of a stripper.......

I have an 18 footer in Kayak Foundry that I keep tweaking on. I just might hit the "print" button by the end of summer. :lol:

I am in the process of learning Unigraphics NX-4 at work and I noticed there is a "ship building" module. Hmmmm....... :D

Yes, it is a sickness. :lol:
 
hey miklos - good one!

nice to see ross's program helping you design and build such nice results.
 
What software do you fellows prefer for your layout and design? I've downloaded 'Kayak Foundry' Is there a universally openable file type to save as?

Thanks,
daniel
 
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