Wooden Kayak Outperforms High-Tech Peers

[Adam Cavaliere]

Here is the Link (http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_guillemot_kayak) to the article on Wired.

It definitely is a work of beauty. Not only the shape and design, but also the finishing.

[Dan Gill]

It ought to! Did you see the price? $20,500! :eek:

[Larry Edgerton]

One trip down some of the rivers I run would turn that into a quivering pile of kindling!

I love wood as well as the next guy, but when it comes to water, no thanks.....

Ill stick with plastic.

[Maurice Ungaro]

It's an ocean kayak. Not meant for rapids. Still, I'd kringe every time I beach it, and hear the hull scraping the sand and rocks.

[Bill Houghton]

Most of the thin strips will soak up enough epoxy that the result is actually a composite, no longer just wood, with the wood acting as the matrix in which the epoxy provides strength the wood could never achieve.

So it's still a high-tech kayak - just one with a natural-tech core.

[Gary Kvasnicka]

Actually, you can build one yourself for about $800 and 200 hours of your time. Once the first scratch is on it, you stop cringing and enjoy it. It only takes a little sanding and another coat of varnish and it is good as new. I am building my second kayak with and for my daughter check out my blog here on the Creek. If you want a lot of info on kayak building check out this site it is where I got my plans.http://www.oneoceankayaks.com (http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/)
Go to the workshop pages for step by step instructions with photos.

[Bruce Haugen]

It's not just 1/4" cedar strips and epoxy. It's a composite sandwich of an exterior and interior layer of fiberglass, spaced by the cedar and a bunch of epoxy. The result is incredibly strong. I built a cedar strip canoe 16 years ago that has stood up to a whole lot of abuse, overloading, scraping on rocks and dropping by boy scouts. The first time it bounced, fully loaded, on a rock I thought it would immediately sink. When we got to shore I tried to find where it hit the rock, but could barely see where the varnish was scratched.

I had the great fortune to meet Bill Tindall's cousin (over on WoodCentral) who designed canoes for a living. He explained that all fiberglass, royalex, plastic, carbon fiber or any other canoes start out as cedar strippers. In fact, he had designed for Wenonah and Northwest Canoes prior to his retirement (as well as being a flat-track motorcycle racer - you should've met this guy).

bruce