: Hi, i was looking at some old wooden racing sculls, flat water
: racing kayaks and a surf ski yesterday. They were all old but in
: excellent, and useable, condition. Their construction was
: similar as they were all wood with round chines and I'm assuming
: a single or double ply - it looked like a single sheet for the
: hull and decks respectively. I'm assuming a single sheet of wood
: had been cut to the right shape, then steamed and folded around
: a form. Beautiful looking things...

: Does anyone know how they are made? any old books, videos etc
: around?

The wood shell was possibly made like the article in WoodenBoat as mentioned, it's not plywood, it's one piece of very thin WRC (I think) wrapped over a steam heated form to get the shape, very interesting construction method.

The others if they are older than the early 60's are likely hot molded, a fairly expensive process that was pretty popular before fiberglass. Now we do similiar shapes cold molded with epoxy, a much more simple and far less expensive process.

Bill H.