Pygmy Osprey HP on Big Creek, Polk
County, IA (Photo: Dr. Bruce Orman).
Dan's Canoe & Sea Kayak Site
(formerly: Golden Age Canoes)
This page started as a sample web page that I was required
to mock up for a class on html programming. I like canoes and touring kayaks and
have done some boat building. This page then became the project journal for the design
and construction of a 16-foot 5-inch touring kayak (my second boat project). It was
my intention to take you along on a start-to-finish strip-build construction project,
and it looks like we accomplished the goal. I want to thank all of my friends that
hung in there with me during the project and supported me with their encouragement.
At the time of this update, the boat is finished and I am planning a canoe or guide-boat
type of project. Also, I am plugging away at some long-overdue updates of the book
sections of the website. If you really enjoy wooden boats and paddling, please check
out the links listed below to the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, Wooden Boat
Magazine, and the boat-building information and material suppliers.
Please take a moment to look over the book pages. This site
contains several annotated bibliographies. They include: canoe- and kayak-related
construction books, great aboriginal mythology, paddling, expedition, and adventure
reading. Additionally, the links section will get you to many canoe and kayak organizations,
historical sites, material suppliers, kit suppliers and interesting individual boat
builders. If you are another builder or represent a company or organization that
would like to be listed in the link directory, please e-mail me with the relevant
information and I'll be happy to include your contact information.
---Have fun! ---D. J. Burden
(last update: 01 July 2004)
(Please scroll down to continue... )
---Should you have any questions or constructive comments
regarding this site, or should you wish to exchange canoe- and kayak-related links,
I can be reached at djburden@iastate.edu. I am very busy and frequently out of the office for periods of time;
however, I will try to respond to all inquiries in a timely manner. Be sure to read
the Disclaimer and Selecting
a Project sections before attempting to build a boat based
on any information presented on this site. Please, no commercial solicitations. ---Thanks!
Projects, Images, & Thoughts...
Boat building projects ---
- Thoughts on selecting a kit or construction method, and
"reverse engineering" considerations... Selecting
a project
- The Goblin Hunter, design and construction of a strip-built
touring kayak...
Goblin hunter sea-kayak drawings
Das Boot! ---the
strongback and station molds
Setting up the shear
strips
Bow fillets and
cheater strips (starting to strip the hull)
Stripping the chines
and keel
Completing the hull
strips
Glassing the hull
Stripping the deck
More deck work
Coaming final cut-out
and construction
Inside glass and
foam
Cheek plates (hip
braces)
Cutting the hatches
Joing the halves,
starting the coaming lip
The hatch-lip flanges
Hatch fittings
and tape for the deck-hull seam
Outisde stems and
fittings
Sanding and varnishing
On the water
Books --- boat building, history, adventure, myth
and legend ---
- Recommended reading for small boat builders ---an annotated
bibliography...
Boat building, Canoe
and Kayak books
- Great adventure reading ---an annotated bibliography...
Historic images of canoes and kayaks ---
- Inuit kayaks and other aboriginal (Native American or First
Persons) watercraft...
Kayaks and baidarkas
- A vintage boat on Lake Laverne on the Iowa State University
campus (1900)...
At the dock
Links...
Of Interest ---
- If you are interested in more classic images, canoe catalogs,
historical documents and a great list of links, consult the Wooden Canoe Heritage
Association... WCHA
- This site surveys the geographic variations in North American
skin-boat design and has a wonderful sequence on the restoration of a rare kayak...
The Canadian Museum
of Civilization
- You can't really hunt from a kayak unless you check with
the Price of Wales Northern Heritage Center and learn how to construct a historically
correct harpoon... Arctic
Harpoons
- If you want to see a neat boat building page (what folks
do during those long Alaskan winters... Fritz
- Detailed information on skin boats is available on the
site of former Museum of Man (The Canadian Museum of Civilization) employee Dave
Zimmerly, including plans, a comprehensive database, and information on courses... Arctic Kayaks
- More detailed information on skin boats by Harvey Golden,
very nice builder's site with some neat trip accounts...
Traditional Arctic Skin Boats
- Here is a great site where glass, carbon-fiber, kevlar
and tricky vacuum clamping is employed for two neat tandems... Ray
Jardine
- Here is the construction story of a great tandem built
for the Rhett Syndrome charity.race down the Mississippi... Flagship
Double Helix
- A really easy stressed-plywood, (epoxy) taped-seam canoe
(more correctly, a cajun pirogue)...Applegate
Pirogue
- A fun folding boat site from amateur builder (kludge master)
Volker Born (in German and English), please see... Greenland
Folder
- Amateur folding boat builder's corner, please see... Other Folders
- Great take-apart stitch-n-glue kayak design by Gary Gladwin...
Volkskayak
- If you are interested in Iowa State University, in Ames,
IA, USA... Iowa StateUniversity
Vendors, Kits & Plans ---
- The Wooden Boat Store: great gift ideas: plans, art books,
back issues of Wooden Boat magazine, etc... Wooden
Boat Store
- The Boundary Waters Catalog from Ely, MN. My favorite place
for many of my paddling supplies, car racks, etc... Piragis
- Northwest Rver Supply from Moscow, ID. Another great supplier
of paddling supplies, particularly whitewater rafting... NRS
- Wilderness tripping supplies, BWCA maps, and boating equipment,
as well as Souris heat-cured epoxy canoes... Red
Rock Wilderness
- If you are interested in great stitch-n-glue kayak kits,
check out... Pygmy Kayaks
- If you are interested in a really nice site that takes
you on the step-by-step progression of how a stitch-n-glue Pygmy Osprey kayak goes
together... Wayne's Osprey
Standard
- The wonderful strip-built boats of Nick Shade... Guillemot Kayaks
- Watch Nick Shade strip build, step-by-step... Building
a Guillemot
- Ross Leidy boat page... very nice construction page, super
boat work and cool deck fittings... The
Ross Guillemot
- Very nice strip-built boats, plans, kits and instructional
videos... Laughing Loon
- Relatively simple to build stressed-plywood, stitch-n-glue
kayak kits, rowing shells, accessories, etc... Chesapeake
Light Craft
- Stitch-n-glue and strip-built canoe and kayak kits and
plans by Ted Moores and Steve Killian, please see... Bear
Mountain
- Shearwater boats, including a hybrid strip-deck and stitch-n-glue
hull design, as well as a very traditional-looking stitch-n-glue baidarka design...
Shearwater
- Materials, plans and kits... Newfound
Woodworks
- More materials, plans and kits... Noa's
- Great source for carbon fiber, fiberglass, and similar
materials... US Composites
Commercial boats ---
