I spent yesterday helping a student steam bend the ribs into a couple canoes. Normally I don’t teach in person anymore because of health issues but I do make exceptions for people who also struggle with limitations! Greg here is kind of a bad ass because he can barely see due to macular degeneration...
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Video: Urban sailing with the canoe catamaran
While working on a project this morning I found this lovely clip from last summer. I like this because it shows how responsive the canoe cat is to sail steering only on downwind courses. Notice how Liz slacks out her sail a little bit and the slight change in lift vector shifts our course...
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One of my favorite size canoes
Here’s a couple nice pictures of the same size canoe that Kevin is building right now. Our system lets you build any size boat you want, but this is one of my favorites because of how versatile it is. At 13‘9” long, it has enough waterline length to hold decent speed but also a...
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Rudder installation instructions in development
Rudder control is an important part of the new sailing system that I’m working on so I’m testing different brands right now and building my installation instructions. Here I’ve got the Smart Track system with Toe Pilots on one kayak and the Seal Line system on another. There’s things I do and don’t like...
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On YouTube: Flat Deck F1 in detail
We just uploaded the new Flat Deck F1 building plans to our site, and a video on YouTube talking about the design (with some great old photos of me crabbing in the surf!). If you’re new here these are solo kayaks that can be quickly rafted together for a stable sailing, fishing, hunting, snorkeling...
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Kevin’s canoe: Stringers tied on
More progress on the canoe I shared yesterday from Kevin. There’s really only about 40 hours of actual work in a canoe this size. ___ This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed. See the original post and discussion here. Follow Cape Falcon Kayak on Instagram »...
Kevin’s canoe: Steam bending
As long as I’m on a steam bending kick here, I just wanted to share this really nice example of steam bending one of our canoes from Kevin (@prairiestonecustom). About four years ago I created a new type of skin on frame canoe building system that uses a mathematical formula to determine the rib...
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Video: Steam bending the double lips onto kayak cockpit coamings
Steam bending the double lips onto kayak cockpit coamings with a little help from Bill (@wessinger_woodworks). As a former solo coastal sea kayaker where every single launch was a surf launch, I take my cockpit coamings extremely seriously. The shape here is long enough that I can lift my legs in and out while...
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The secrets to amazing steam bending
The secrets to amazing steam bending are: getting good wood, building smart jigs, staying organized, and avoiding everything you find on the Internet about the topic (except for maybe this post). I’m getting set up here to do a run of steam bent keyhole cockpit coamings with freshly sawn white oak from Zena Forest...
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Building catamaran boards from salvaged wood
Portland has a law that older homes slated to be torn down must be deconstructed which has given rise to an entire salvage industry here. A couple days ago I headed over to Reclaim NW for a smoking deal on some pine and fir for a couple new sets of catamaran boards. I’m not...
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Video: kayak catamaran test
Here’s a few GoPro clips from the kayak catamaran test last week that gives a good sense of what this actually feels like on the water. Wind was 15 gusting to 22 mph. I left the audio on so you can hear us talking. This set up is an offshoot of the Canoe Catamaran...
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Lots of new plans and videos in development
For the last five months we’ve been working on a massive level up that includes: The new flat deck F1 plan, A flat deck LPB plan, about 15 new course videos for building those, two new sizes for the LPB, The kayak catamaran system, a new online store including a ton of new options...
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Video: drone shots of the kayak catamaran
Here’s a few drone shots of the kayak catamaran testing. Not the best videography because the wind had died down a bit and it’s pretty hard to use the drone in these conditions, but it does give you some idea of how the whole set up works and how it rides the waves. For...
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Video: Perfect conditions for testing the kayak catamaran
We had perfect conditions for testing the kayak catamaran yesterday. 65 degrees, overcast, with 15-20 mph winds. (There’s audio here by the way) So how does it work? Surprisingly well actually. We tested two different forward catamaran board positions; one directly ahead of the cockpit, the other right behind the masts. A bit of...
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The kayak catamaran is dangerously close to becoming a reality
The kayak catamaran is dangerously close to becoming a reality. I’ve been juggling over a dozen big projects this year so this one had to come together much slower than I would like, but I finally got all the bits together and hopefully we can take it out for sailing trials tomorrow. The attachment...
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