WaveLength Magazine, December/January 2001

          Why Would Anybody Want a Wood Kayak?

By Shawn w. Baker

Myth #1: Wood Kayaks are fragile

Used correctly, wood is one of the greatest building materials known. Wood is, in itself, a composite of tubular voids surrounded by harder lignin cellulose. Harder, stronger summerwood is bonded in layers to softer, less dense springwood. It is strong in tension (pulling); strong in compression (pushing); strong in torsion (twisting); strong in shear (tearing) across the grain; and less affected by severe fatigue cycles than more stiff and brittle materials like carbon or fiberglass.

When the wood shell of a kayak is completed and sheathed with a protective layer of stiffer, shiny fiberglass, a rigid monococque structure is produced. The wood and fiberglass composite offers a unique ‘symbiotic’ relationship. The fiberglass protects the wood from water saturation and everyday scrapes and dings. The wood (aside from being beautiful) provides a very stiff core material that is less likely than a foam core to shear away from the face composite, and is much lighter for its given stiffness than a hull constructed from solid fiberglass.

Myth #2: Wood kayaks are expensive

Custom-built kayaks can cost $3,000 to $5,000, but as Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks says, “It’s an art, not a craft”. Professionally crafted kayaks draw the kinds of stares and ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ that completely escape commercial kayaks.

Myth #3: Wood kayaks require a lot of maintenance

          Most wooden kayaks are sheathed with fiberglass saturated by epoxy resin. Epoxy is very tough, waterproof, and durable. Its only drawback is low UV resistance. An annual or biannual varnishing with a quality marine-grade spar varnish is all that is needed to protect the boat from UV damage.

Most scratches and dings are in the varnish layer only, and disappear during the varnishing ritual. Deeper scratches are gone, too, when they are filled with epoxy, sanded smooth, and varnished over. Serious penetrations (if they actually occur) require about as much fiberglass work as a similarly damaged composite boat. Gaping holes in plastic boats can’t be reliably fixed.

Myth #4: Wood Kayaks can’t be High Performance

            Stitch and glued hulls are the easiest way to make a hard-shell kayak with hard chines. The Current Designs ‘Caribou’ was originally a stitch and glue design that performed so well it was added to the composite maker’s lineup.

Wood kayaks are as stiff as Kevlar and fiberglass boats, and much stiffer than plastic. This stiffness means less paddling energy is lost in flexing the hull—a stiffer boat is a faster boat.