Little Auk

Product Description

This delightful little boat is designed for someone who wants a light, easy to handle recreational kayak of distinctive character. Its small size makes it easy to put on the roof of a car or on the deck of a yacht and transport it to your favourite lake or harbour. Once there, you will be able to go into places inaccessible by any other boat. Its stability assures that staying upright will not be an adventure.

This is a shorter version of the Great Auk sea kayak range.

The 10 foot long version is best suited to people who need a truly compact boat. The 11 foot long version will track a little straighter and carry a slightly larger paddler.

A detailed Guillemot kayak build log (with photos) can be read on our forum. It is built using the same strip-planking method as the Little Auk.

The kits include:

Pre-cut forms and strongback
A mixture of red cedar strips and paulownia strips with bead-and-cove joints
Waterproof glue for the wooden strips
Epoxy resin and activator
Epoxy fillers
Woven glass fabric
Fabric covered foam seat and backband
Adjustable footbraces
Foam knee pads
Deck hold-down lines (bolt-on)
Plans and building notes
The Strip-Built Sea Kayak (book) by Nick Schade
Free technical support from a competent builder

We supply roughly one-third red cedar strips and two-thirds Paulownia strips as standard but if you have a particular pattern in mind, we can provide a different ratio if you contact us before ordering. We can also supply yellow cedar strips.

What else do I need?

Plans (Not required by kit purchasers)

The plans contain sufficient information to make it possible to build the boat from scratch rather than a kit. They include full size drawings for all the forms. We recommend Nick Schade's book, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, which covers the techniques that are used to build strip-planked kayaks.

Forms and Strongback

For those wanting to obtain the other materials needed to build the boat from other sources, this option contains the pre-cut forms and strongback and the necessary plans to build the boat. The wooden strips are not included (see below).