Customer Reviews

Kayaks You Can Build: An Illustrated Guide to Plywood Construction

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is more complete than the manual that came with the two Chesapeake kayaks I built this year or "The New Kayak Shop" I used to augment the manual. It would not serve as a stand alone as it does not include plans.

However, given plans or a kit this book will provide basic and detailed techniques, and special tricks that will help you build a very good boat. I will read it very carefully before building my next.

The organization makes it especially useful as a reference book. A little over half of it covers the techniques for building and finishing stitch and glue kayaks. The remaining portion is a step by step log of the actual building of Chesapeake Mill Creek, a Pygmy Coho, and a Bear Mountain Enterprise. The Enterprise is a hybrid with a stitch and glue hull and strip built deck.

The authors are very much on appearance rather than performance. There is much detail on varnishing. Note that the three kayaks built here do not have a hatch on the front deck (They didn't want to clutter their beautiful staining and varnishing.)so don't look for guidance on laying out your deck rigging.

This is by far the most complete reference I've seen on this type of boat construction.

I wish I had had this book the first time I built a stitch-and-glue boat. Loads of really good advice and neat tricks. I'm often approached by people after they've seem my boats asking me for advice. This is now the book I'll recommend first to someone who wants to build a kit. As another reviewer noted, this book is really for someone who plans to build from a kit, not from scratch. If its your first time building, I recommend you follow the author's advice and go with a kit - building from scratch, while exciting, is tough the first time around (unless, perhaps, you're a experienced woodworker). I've seen too many scratch built boats that ended up costing about the same as a quality kit - and looked like crap to boot.

The title of this book implies that you will know how to build a plywood kayak after reading it. However; it only tells you how to proceed after buying a prefabricated kit from one of three suppliers. (One of which was founded by one of the authors)
Nowhere does it give you the dimensions you need to start from scratch and build your own. If you have lots of money and don't mind buying a kit, this book is an excellent reference. But for builders on a budget like myself, I don't recommend buying this book.

There are so many tips and good ideas in this book. It is definetly worth it, Starting with building the ideal workbench, the ideas for using the templates to hold in the sides to fiberglass it as one piece instead of cutting it up to fit inbetween the bulkheads. Lots of nice color pictures, beautiful presentation. I'd definely recommend this book.

Really well presented book, easy to follow. It will give you a nice overview of the building process.

This book is the most through that i have seen and I have looked at most every kayak book made. It will help anyone wanting to learn stitch and glue methods for kayaks or small boats. GET THIS ONE!

A good overview of home workshop construction. Very nice edition, well illustrated. Be aware that this book does NOT include usable plans.

Kayaking has become the latest popular fad, with many discovering them easier to transport than canoes, and lower-impact than motorboats: for those avid kayakers who would customize their own design, her comes Kayaks You Can Build: An Illustrated Guide To Plywood Construction, an illustrated guide to plywood- constructed kayaks. You don't have to start from scratch: kits are widely available, and KAYAKS YOU CAN BUILD assumes one of these kits is the starting point, providing the authors' expertise as kayak builders and boatbuilding instructors as it follows the process.

There are no plans in this book, they are only instructions on how to put together a kit you purchase from the author. It's pretty difficult to determine who this book is for. Is the author selling kits with no or poor instructions and people have to purchase this book to build their kit? If you do buy a kit, why do you have to purchase this book which contains instructions on several other kits you don't need? I can't see why this book is sold on Amazon, or anyplace other than the website the kits are sold on. IMHO the book is just an advertisement used to distract you from a good book on this topic in the hopes that once you get the book you'll buy one of the author's kits. This is one of those purchases that teaches you to be very careful about what you buy in the future.

I bought this book as I assumed by the title that it would also contain the plans, for the 3 kayaks described within. Some of the other reviews are bias and don't give a clear indication on this either. If your after plans don't buy this book.

The photos are good but if your a scratch builder not a kit builder these better books, one I would recommend is The new kayak shop offering the best bang for your buck.