Building a glue and stitch kayak

[Woodboy]

Anybody out there in cyber land ever try this? I could buy a kit, but with the laser cut marine plywood pieces it's the same price as buying one. I can get the plans only for $100

Just wondering how hard it would be to trace the patterns on the ply and then cut with a band saw.

[capncarl]

I haven’t built a kayak or canoe but have built several bateau’s. (But I’ve done a bunch of fiberglass’ boat repairs) My bateaus were never intended to be pretty like the strip built boats. I’ve contemplated taking a 5 day boat building class offered by the maratime museum in Apalachicola Fla but just can’t ever get this time, and lodging in Apalachicola is nearly non-existing. Several of my friends have built strip canoes and kayaks. I think they said the cost was less than $500 but the build hours was several hundred vrs the advertised 80 for the kit boat. Another negative comment I’ve heard about the kit boats is some suppliers cut the plywood pieces smaller than 3ft for shipping purposes. This stinks having to splice boards together when it comes from the factory 8/12 ft sheets.
Another note about building a fiberglass boat is the curing of the fiberglass in cold weather. If you plan on building a fiberglass boat beware that fall, winter and spring temperatures in Co. are not inductive to fiberglass unless you have a special climate shop. You could wind up with a boat with a sticky syrup like mess.
capncarl