: Is there a complete kayak building kit for under $300?

Probably not. But there are many suppliers of materials and plans, and by ordering one thing here and another there you can create your own "kit" for many designs for well under $300.

It's like going to the restaurant. You cna order the complete meal, or you can order separate items a la carte and make whatever combination you wish. either way you get fed. Putting together the parts needed for a kayak from several suppliers instead of just one will still get you on the water.

There are a few advantages to complete kits: you get a faster start, the instructions are generally comprehensive, and you save a lot of trips to the hardware store. You pay a small premium for all these benefits. If your desire is to achieve good results at a low cost then you'll save $ by shopping competitively, and perhaps by substituting comparable materials.

As another post has mentioned, you can build from plans in books. The Walrus design in George Putz's book has been built by several people for under $200, and a plywood version was built for about the same cost. Since the design did not call for a very flexible plywood, inexpensive lauan was used instead of the more expensive marine grades of okume frequently used in other plywood boats.

Personally, I think that if you have some tools it should be possible to build a strip-built kayak for under $300. If I was to try this, I'd get plans or offsets from the internet, Nick Schade's book, David Hazen's book, or Ted Moores' book. I'd use forms cut from the cheapest particleboard I could find. and I'd rip my own strips, but not put a bead and cove edge on them. I'd mix a bit of pine and redwood strips in with the cedar to give me a diverse color palette if I wanted to do some kind of fancy design.

I'm debating on glass cloth suppliers, but I think I'd get my glass cloth in a 2 ounce weight from Defender -- and use several layers and all the scraps -- and probably get my epoxy resin from Raka. My thinking here is that the thinner cloth should have a weave that is not very prominent, and thus would require less resin for a fill coat. That saves cost, as well as weight. I'd need almost twice the length as with 4 ounce cloth, but I think that ordering the longer length would kick my order up to where I'd qualify for a discount. The scraps would allow me to apply three layers in places, giving me the advantage fo 6 ounces of glass in an area -- the same strength as I'd get from using 6 ounce glass cloth -- but I'd not have to buy a short length of that material at the relatively higher cost.

I think this and the disposables: sandpaper, rollers, brushes, gloves, etc. should be in the vicinity of $300.

Stitch-and-glue plywood boats made from lauan are going to be less expensive and faster to build. One reason for the savings is that most of these designs do not require you to make building forms and a strongback to hold them.

If you go with the design in Putz's book, whether you build it with a canvas skin, or with plywood sides, I have a page posted on the web which translates the dimensions he gives in his book into simple coordinate points which you can plot rather quickly. These also allow you to use far less wood for the building forms, and that will save you about $30.

good luck with your project.

PGJ