From Instagram | Cape Falcon Kayak

Paul’s pack canoe

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

The cool thing about our canoe building system is that it gives you the freedom to modify the shaping for individual preferences. This pack canoe built by Paul in Dubuque Iowa is a little different than anything that I’ve done so far but it seems do you have turned out really nicely so I’ll...

Tanner’s solo canoe

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Here’s another great Cape Falcon solo canoe example build by Tanner. Being a powerline technician Tanner had access to old power poles which he milled with a chainsaw for the longitudinal pieces! Living on the Canadian Prairie local wood for the ribs wasn’t really an option so he imported the White Oak, which is...

Video: First cut with the Metabo 36 V cordless plunge router

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

After 25 years with my ‘beat up to the point of being unsafe’ porter cable router I decided to use the re-film for all of my router jig videos as an excuse to buy this cordless Metabo. Only time will tell if this ends up being a decent tool but I bought it because...

Angus’s pair of F2 tandem kayaks

August 2022August 2022Leave a comment

Generally speaking I hate most tandem kayaks, which is why I designed the F2. At 20 feet long 24 1/2 inches wide and 45 pounds, it’s fast, light and maneuvers surprisingly well without a rudder. Over the last year Angus built a pair of these for his family in North Ireland so everyone could...

Video: Copying the hole spacing on your router to transfer to our kayak building jigs

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

I’m redoing my router setup videos for my kayak building course. We replace the factory base with one made of 1/2” plywood so we can build various router guides and jigs. Getting the hole spacing precise is important because otherwise you risk cross threading the mounting holes. Normally you can just trace the factory...

On YouTube: Notes from a bad day out

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Here’s some raw footage from a bad day out kayak sailing. Broke a rudder cable, burned through 2 cleats, started getting hit by 45mph gusts, (forecast was 15-20) missed my first roll ever under sail, swam for 1/2 an hour, and had to carry the kayak up 45 degree slopes covered with poison oak...

Zach and Aaron’s F1s

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Lots of great pictures coming in from students right now. This pair of F1 kayaks were built by Zach and his brother Aaron in Arizona, then they drove them to the Pacific Northwest to paddle in the San Juan islands and also off the Oregon coast! Really nice work on the shaping on these. Getting...

Beautiful solo built by Ruedi in Switzerland

August 2022July 2023Leave a comment

Here’s another beautiful solo built by Ruedi in Switzerland. To my eye it looks just a little bit round on the bottom which could be due to less than optimal bending stock or choosing a different value for the rib length formula then the plans suggest. On the other hand it could also just...

John’s solo canoe

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

I want to share this lovely example of our canoe building system, built by John in Virginia. The canoe is 14‘10“ long, and 30” wide, 12.5” deep, with 2” of rocker, and 2” of tumblehome. John is 180 pounds which is about as heavy as I would go before making the canoe 5 inches...

Video: Sail testing got a little out of control yesterday…

August 2022June 2023Leave a comment

Sail testing got a little out of control yesterday. (30 gusting to 40) Unfortunately things got much worse about 15 minutes after this video clip. I’ll talk about that tomorrow....

On YouTube: Kayak Catamaran Trip Report

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

I just put up a full trip report on the Cape Falcon Kayak YouTube channel about our first serious test of the new sailing catamaran system! Some thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that we were dismasted the first day forcing us to camp on a postage-stamp sized island where I had to do significant...

Earth pigment color test results

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Here’s the finished results from our earth pigment color test. I’m extremely happy with how this turned out because I had always suspected that there was a much wider range of color possibilities, but you have to do the tests to check for chemical compatibility and also to build a reproducible color library. Based...

Testing Earth Pigments

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Today we are testing 20 different earth pigments mixed into the two part polyurethane we use to cover our skin on frame boats. This is a super expensive test, consuming about $600 in materials with 3 people working for 8 hours, but when we’re done I will have a color chart that not only...

On YouTube: Multi-day Skin on Frame Kayak Catamaran Trip in the Columbia River Gorge

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

Here’s a short clip from a video I just posted to the Cape Falcon Kayak YouTube channel showing our new kayak catamaran system on a multi-day trip in the Columbia River Gorge. Full video below! Details for how to build the catamaran system are already in our skin on frame kayak building course, and we...

Tiniteqilaaq Update

August 2022September 2022Leave a comment

For everyone who donated to our campaign to send our friends in East Greenland to the Greenland national Kayaking Championships in Illulissat, I want to pass along some photos and an email we received from Max the schoolmaster who organized the trip:. “We came back yesterday from Ilulissat. It has been an amazing time....