Super Secret Kayak Project X Revealed at SSTIKS 2008!

Remember Super Secret Kayak Project X that I reported about back in February? That was the skin-on-frame kayak commissioned by Dick Mahler, designed and constructed by Portland, Oregon kayak builder Lodro Dawa of Monkcraft Kayaks. Well I missed the South Sound Traditional Inuit Sea Kayak Symposium (SSTIKS) this year so I didn't get to see it unveiled.  

The kayak is a three piece Greenland-style skin-on-frame. It has watertight hatches and bulkheads which attach together with bolts. Dick told me that Chris Cunningham, editor of Sea Kayaker Magazine wanted to do an article for Sea Kayaker on it. Chris requested that Dick make sure that no pictures of it get out on the Internet before his magazine article came out.  Well, too bad, because the cat's already out of the bag!  Remember you saw it here first! These are some of the pics that Stephen S published recently on his awesome SSTIKS gallery.

 

Great job, Lodro!  I heard she's a pretty sweet ride too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jan Egil Kristiansen]

Does this make sense? Doesn't the structural strength in a SOF come from the entire skin compressing the entire frame?

Maybe it still makes sense in terms of light weight? Is this something anyone would risk shipping on a plane?

[Andrew Elizaga]

Lodro designed the joints so that there are metal supports running diagonally from the chines to the gunwales on each side of each of the bulkheads. This keeps the frame fairly rigid and prevents it from twisting. When I saw him demonstrate an unskinned mock-up of the joint he was able to stand on it without the frame flexing.

Dick lives in a condo and doesn't really have the space to store a 17 ft kayak. He also owns a custom three-piece Pygmy Arctic Tern 14:

http://dashpointpirate.typepad.com/the_dash_point_pirate_woo/2006/04/boatbuilders_cu.html

Storage was his main concern and I don't think he put much thought into traveling with it on a plane. This kayak weighs more than it would as a one piece because of the additional hardware and bulkheads.

[Boat repair]

This small boat is amazing. One can carry it around on one's shoulder, does not seem to be so heavy. It’s simply the best.