paddling with a camera

During six weeks of April and May 1999 I built a plywood stitch-and-glue kayak, Patuxent 19.5, from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit. It was a fun project and a wonderful experience. I haven't fallen into a boat building addiction, and since then I bought several racing oriented boats. Nevertheless, the Patuxent remains my most photogenic boat.

I am still thinking about building a new kayak. Under influence of my recent racing activity these ideas go into two directions. First, I would like to have an expedition racing kayak suitable for WaterTribe Challenges. I am lurking at Mystery by Nick Shade and Northern Arrow (picture below) by Hans Friedel. For shorter races I would rather rely on professionally built racing kayak like WSBS Thunderbolt, KayakPro Vampire or Van Dusen Mohican.

Second, I am thinking about traveling to some distant races by air with a folding kayak. Long distance driving is just getting too expensive and time consuming. I can try this approach with my Feathercraft K1 Expedition, but I would like to have something much lighter and faster. Birgit Fisher's folding racing K1 built by Nautirad would be too extreme for me. So, the only solution (and more affordable one) seems to build a foldable racing kayak by myself using, e.g., Tom Yost technology.

There are many books available on amateur kayak building using different approaches and materials: strippers, stitch-and-glue, skin on frame ...

I am just updating the Mountain Wayfarer bookstore using the recent aStore format from amazon.com. Here is a glimpse at the front page. The very first category is kayak building.