River Touring Kayak | Cape Falcon Kayak

Video: First test paddle in the river kayak prototype

February 2020July 2023Leave a comment

Turn the sound on! I build a LOT of prototype kayaks but it’s very rare for me to land on a candidate for further development. This is one of them. To recap: I’ve been working for about 10 years on a kayak for self-support trips on rivers that have a lot of flat water...

Timelapse: Skinning the river kayak prototype

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

I’m still working on mixing down the video we shot yesterday of the test paddle of the new skin on Frame River Touring Kayak. In the meantime enjoy this time lapse of the skinning process. Also I’m curious how people feel about IGTV? Generally I keep my videos here down to one minute and...

Day 8, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Rigging and Accessories

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Day 8, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: rigging and accessories. I spent years getting the cockpit for this boat perfect so I’m not touching anything there, but I am experimenting with some alternate deck line arrangements and a drain plug. I’m leaving the bow and stern tied with English bridle leather straps because...

Messing around with the studio lights while we wait for the boat to cure

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Messing around with the studio lights while we wait for the coating to fully cure. Everyone who’s ever built a skin boat has done this, but it’s still pretty cool....

Day 7, Skin on Frame River Touring kayak: Coating the Kayak

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Day 7, Skin on Frame River Touring kayak: coating the kayak. All of our kayaks are coated with the Spirit Line two-part polyurethane. Having tried many other options there is nothing that I’ve found that is even half as tough. It is, however, not a very easy or forgiving product. Being the poor capitalist...

Day 6, Skin on Frame River touring kayak: Skinning

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Day 6, Skin on Frame River touring kayak: skinning day! If had to rank the reasons to buy our kayak building course, my skinning method would near the top. Not only is our method MUCH faster, there are just so many ways to mess up your kayak here. Some skins can be sewn up...

Timelapse: Bending the ribs into the river kayak prototype

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

I had to pause the river kayak build for a few days to catch up on all the non-boatbuilding parts of the business. To keep you entertained in the meantime, he’s a time lapse we made of bending the ribs!...

Day 5, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Finishing the deck and oiling the frame

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Day 5, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Finishing the deck and oiling the frame. I added the aft deck and foredeck stringers mostly following my usual formula for the F1 kayak, but decided to go with an ash foredeck stringer which I could make a bit lower profile and retain the same strength...

Day 4, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Tying on Stringers

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak Day 4, tying on stringers. Things slowed down a little bit today while I was trying to decide how I wanted to place the stringers and terminate the keel. Like I said yesterday, the thing that will eat more time than anything in a build is stopping to...

Day 3, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Bending ribs and lashing the keel

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Day 3, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Bending ribs and lashing the keel. I started the day by reluctantly admitting that the steam box I’ve been using for the last 12 years has finally expired. It’s always hard to let things like this go even if it’s just something you made out of...

Day 2, Skin-on-Frame River Touring Kayak: Building the deck and cutting ribs

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Skin-on-Frame River Touring Kayak Day 2. Building the deck and cutting ribs. Such a relief to be free from the grueling detail work of replica building and back to the fast, fun, and easy process of building my own boats. My biggest challenge with prototype work is just to trust my intuition and not...

Day 1, Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak: Miscellaneous prep work

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Skin on Frame River Touring Kayak. Day 1, misc. prep work. A white water capable skin-on-frame touring kayak is something I’ve been working on intermittently for a long time. Basically, I’m looking for something to fill the niche on multi day river trips with a lot of flat water and a few significant rapids...