: Hi,
: I'm currentyl involved in a furniture making course in Australia and am
: hoping to make a kayak as part of that. I'd be most likely to use it on
: rivers or launching from the beach (but ultimately hoping to make a trip
: around some small Indonesian islands/along Aus's coast one day). I assume
: this means I'd be wanting a sea kayak. I had a few questions re the
: feasibility and details of this venture before I jump in: How long is this
: likely to take me? I have a bit of furniture making experience but none in
: making boats and would be wanting to make a strip kayak.
: What sort of size would I be wanting? I'm 5'2" (157cm) and in the
: 90-100lbs range (don't know exact cnversion). If possible I'd like to make
: something that I could go camping with.
: Cheers in advance
: Dot

Hi Dot,

One example about how this can be hard to give a definate answer. This past winter I taught a class about greenland paddle carving. I can usually make one in a day or so, so figured I'd triple the amount of time for new inexperienced people. Well, needed to increase that to almost 6 times as long. If I need to take a 1/4" of wood off a paddle I can do it with a few strokes of a plane, these people would play with it for 2 hours. They all did a really nice job, just took a really long time doing it.

So if an experienced builder can build a wood strip kayak in saw 200-300 hours, you might be able to do that too or it could take a 1000 hours, depends on the person.

Bill H.