microBootlegger Solo

Product Description

The Solo microBootlegger is a roomy yet efficient strip-planked kayak or decked canoe for relaxed paddling and exploration.

Based on the popular microBootlegger tandem kayak design, the solo microBootlegger retains the elegant look of a 1920's mahogany runabout. This is a roomy boat with a large cockpit. It is stable and comfortable with room to move around yet long and narrow enough to be an efficient boat to paddle all day in. While meant for relaxing paddling in sheltered harbours, more adventurous paddlers may want to build it with a smaller keyhole cockpit to make a capable rock garden play boat.

The designer, Nick Schade, built his prototype with mahogany strips to fit with the look of the old runabouts, but built in cedar and paulownia strips its handsome lines result in a very lightweight and refined looking vessel.

Schade has also designed a more high-performance solo kayak in the microBootlegger range, the microBootlegger Sport.

The kit includes:

• Pre-cut forms and strongback
• A mixture of red cedar strips and paulownia strips with bead-and-cove joints
• Waterproof glue for the strips
• Epoxy resin and activator
• Epoxy fillers
• Woven glass fabric
• Flush deck hatches with toggles
• Deck hold-down lines (bolt-on)
• Fabric covered foam seat and backband
• Adjustable footbraces
• 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).

Wooden strips

As well as the plans, forms and strongback, 320 m of bead-and-cove cedar strips and/or paulownia strips will be needed for the microBootlegger.

Compare this kayak with others.