One Sheet Kayak

DO NOT BUILD THIS KAYAK!

The

One Sheet Kayak

Just for something to do, I drew up a design for a one sheet kayak. It's made out of 1/8" luan plywood and it should have a displacement of around 90lbs.

I designed this Kayak using Greg Carlson's Hulls Program

Click here for the Hulls file

Click here for the offsets table

Here are the panels laid out..

Instead of using wire, or zip ties, I decided to sew the boat together with fishing line.It was easy to do, the monofilament line is stiff enough to feed through the holes in the panels.

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Here are the bottom panels sewn up.

The bottom panels laid on top of the sides. The remainder of the 4"x8" sheet is seen leaning against the bench. The top panels have yet to be cut out of it.

A test before fiberglass.

Bottom and sides ready for fiberglass and epoxy.

Bottom fiberglassed with the top being sewn on.

Instead of just pouring a blob of epoxy, I shaped a piece of wood and epoxied one in the bow and stern.

Sewing Detail

The Bottom Glassed

The bottom has been glassed inside and out. The top has been glassed on the inside, but not the outside.

Material for the watertight compartments bulkheads comes from the cutouts.

I set that piece at the approximate location of the bulkhead and drew lines on both sides.

Doing this makes a piece larger than the final bulkhead

Using a protractor I roughed out the hull shape on the bulkhead

By repeating the above process, I ended up with this.

Here is how it fits. This is the aft bulk head and it ended up about 3" behind the seat opening. The placement is not critical to me, I was just trying to enclose as much space as I could and still leave a little room behind the seat.

Here is the process of roughing in the forward watertight bulkhead. It ended up about 16" back from the bow, or about 42" from the back of the seat. I came up with those measurements by looking at a weight/height chart for an average 90lb. kid. A 90 pounder ought to be able to sit against the seat and almost touch heels on the fore bulkhead.

The fore bulkhead fitted and ready for fiberglass. If you look in the picture above you will see sheet rock screw that I had to put in the bulk head in order to get it in and out for the fitting process. I'll remove the screw and fill the hole when I epoxy the bulkhead in place

I am using white cedar for the coaming. I clamped a peice to the cutout.

Then traced the cut-line.

Then cut it out on the band saw

Test fit of the coaming

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