Venture 14

Product Description

The Venture 14 is a sporty wood-strip sea kayak design from Bear Mountain Boats, intended for smaller paddlers. It is suitable for children and shorter adults up to a weight of about 10 st (64 kg).

The Venture has a more vertical bow stem than the larger Endeavour and Resolute kayaks. The boat has a perky feel with its springy sheer line, compact length and upright bow. Although it has a narrower beam than the Endeavour 17, the Venture will feel similarly stable, due to the lower centre of gravity of a shorter paddler.

The Venture has the lowest low-speed resistance of all the Bear Mountain kayaks, making it a pleasure to paddle in calm bays and open lakes. The Venture has less rocker at the stern, to retain the tracking of the larger boats. This improves its ability to paddle in a straight line – an important feature in a boat designed for cruising.

Ted Moores of Bear Mountain Boats is the author of Kayakcraft, the standard reference book for wood-strip kayak building. The book is recommended to accompany the kit or plans. It is packed with tips and techniques and has inspired countless first-time kayak builders around the world.

Length

4.27 m (14′)

Maximum beam

560 mm (22″)

Beam waterline

520 mm (20½″)

Bow height

330 mm (13″)

Centre depth

178 mm (7″)

Displacement

91 kg (200 lb)

Draught

89 mm (3½″)

Wetted surface

1.55 m² (16.7 sq ft)

Weight to immerse

74 lb/in

Prismatic coefficient

0.557

Weight

20.5-22.5 kg (45-50 lb)

Cockpit opening

785 × 405 mm (31″ × 16″)

Kit

We manufacture our kits to the highest standard using European-grown Paulownia for the planking strips. Uniquely, the strips in our Bear Mountain Boats kits have not only a bead-and-cove profile but also a pre-cut finger joint at each end, making the neat joining of strips even easier for builders at home.

The kit includes:

• Plans
• Instructions booklet
• CNC-cut building forms
• Paulownia strips with bead-and-cove edges and finger joints on both ends
• Ash stem strips
• Paulownia sheer clamps
• Sapele sheer guards (rubrails)
• Marine plywood bulkheads and cockpit coaming
• Fabric covered foam seat and backband
• Adjustable footbraces
• Waterproof glue for the strips
• Epoxy resin and activator
• Dispensing pumps
• Digital scales
• Epoxy fillers
• Woven glass fabric on a roll
• Free technical support from a competent builder

Please note that the kit does not include the box beam strongback for mounting the building forms on. You can either use a straight length of suitable timber or order the box-beam strongback we supply.

Hatches are not included as standard. There are many ways of making and fastening kayak hatches and we can supply the parts.

What else do I need?

Strongback

This strongback is made up of CNC-cut MDF panels that fit together to form a strong and stiff box beam measuring 200 mm × 200 mm and long enough to build the boat. You'll need a pair of trestles or sawhorses to raise it to a comfortable working height.

Plans and Instructions (not required by kit purchasers)

The plans contain sufficient information to make it possible to build the boat from scratch rather than a kit. The plans are printed in colour and include scale plans and full size drawings for all the forms.