General Skin-on-frame Kayak Questions

Traditional Paddles

Kayak-Building workshops at your location

Shipping and getting your kayak home

Our sea kayaks are covered with an 8.5 ounce ballistic nylon, specially designated for skinboats. This fabric was formerly used for military flask vests, to protect its wearers from shrapnel. The skins are coated in a special two-part polyurethane, a coating that is highly abrasion-resistant and UV resistant. The result is a skin that will take an enormous beating, even in heavy surf zones and rock gardens.

How much do your sea kayaks weigh?

The Stellar Sea Kayak weighs 28 pounds, completely decked with all fittings, including the seating pads. A similar sized fiberglass kayak weighs about 55 pounds, and a plastic one weighs about 65 pounds.

Are skin-on-frame boats durable?

After paddling my skin-on-frame kayaks offshore in some of the most life-threatening conditions, I have to say I the skins have never once let me down. I have dragged them across beaches loaded with a hundred pounds of gear, rammed them into sea walls in front of waves, and been tossed end over in the surf a dozen times. But, seeing is believing, take a look at this YouTube video.

How do skin-on-frame kayaks compare to fiberglass kayaks?

Fiberglass kayaks are literally twice as heavy as skin-on-frames. (65 vs. 28 lbs.) In addition, the ability to quickly prototype and make changes in kayak designs allows me to constantly refine and develop my kayaks from one class to the next, from one comment to the next, allowing a multi-year evolution in my boats that no production kayak can ever have. Because each boat is always custom-built, I am never held to a shape simply because of mass-production rules or economy-of-scale.

I have endured heavy hits on rocks with my kayaks that would have easily cracked fiberglass hulls, and done field repairs on skins simply and quickly when hundreds of miles from help. Fiberglass kayaks are expensive, heavy, and difficult to repair in the field when you need them working the most.

On the other hand, in theory, fiberglass kayaks have smoother hulls, resulting in more efficient water flow. However, in practice, I have not charted by my GPS any noticeable difference in speed or fatigue when paddling either type of kayak hull, even when comparing different materials with the exact same design. Other factor in boat design seem to make a much bigger difference than hull smoothness in the real world.

What are comparable costs for other sea kayaks?

Building a skin-on-frame kayak may seem expensive at first glance. When you look more closely, however, you will find that a comparable sea kayak in fiberglass or plastic carries a price tag of at least $2800. Kayak designs vary widely in their abilities and their cost– a high-end seaworthy kayak will always be expensive due to the high cost of small production. Don’t forget, buying a kayak also does not include the unique experience of crafting your own while learning valuable woodworking skills and more.

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Modern paddles, often called ‘Euro-Paddles’ or have come to the shape that they are today because of history. Derived from the British canoe paddle, the first European paddlers that began using kayaks in the Western World took with them what they were most familiar with.

Today we know that traditional paddles designed for native kayaks offer some advantages over spoon-paddles, particularly for long-distance touring or paddling for over an hour at a stretch. With a lower resistance blade surface, traditional paddles like Greenland paddles require increased cadence, building aerobic strength but removing high strain to the shoulders and arms. Additionally, Greenland paddles allow a much wider variety of strokes for maneuvering kayaks.

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Maybe! If you would like to hold a workshop in your area, I offer a significant discount for you as an organizer if you can find me a workshop space and get four other students to participate in a workshop. If your location is within two or three day’s drive, the costs will be less expensive as I will not need to ship my materials pre-prepared. We now have a forum dedicated to coordinating kayak-building workshops offsite.

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Seawolf now has a forum to help you figure out different ways to get your kayak home. You can also ship your kayak using a freight service.

A freight service is a good way to go, but there are caveats. For one, freight shippers are the least careful with boats, and SOF kayaks are somewhat delicate compared to say, forklifts. However, my experience with shipping kayaks has been generally positive. If you are in no particular hurry to see your kayak get to its destination (generally about 1-2 weeks), then freight shipping to most places in the continental U.S. will cost you about $250-$300. This price reflects you dropping off your boat at the delivery terminal in the city, and then picking it up at the recieving terminal in your hometown.

Before I get involved with specific, shippers, though, let’s talk about packaging. Protecting a kayak for shipping is crucial, and will end up costing a bit of money because the handlers can be rough. I highly recommend a layer of bubble wrap around the entire boat and then all saran-wrapped or heavily packaging-taped. Imagine your boat getting tossed around onto anvil-like objects and you can imagine the protection you need.

The only two shipping companies I have worked with directly are Forward Air and Yellow. I don’t recommend Yellow.

I recommend Forward Air.

Forward Air has dealt with shipping kayaks quite a bit. You must call them to get a quote to your location. From Portland, OR to New York City, my quote for a Steller Sea Kayak was $280. Another option may be FreightQuote (though I quote I got from them is at least $100 more without discount), which has been used by Richard Hartman of WetDawg, who’s written a good summary of shipping whitewater kayaks. Here’s what he says:

I explained to Jason Zuba, FreightQuote’s sales rep, that thousands of kayaks are shipped around the country – which might be a good revenue opportunity if FreightQuote were willing to adjust their prices…As a result, Jason agreed to adjust FreightQuote’s “discount code” for kayakers who call him directly and mention my name (Richard Hartman) and the “special kayak deal.” This pricing is open to dealers and individuals alike (call 1-888-595-5664, ext. 1260 – you must speak with Jason Zuba to get the discount).

Hope this information helps you decide about shipping! To get a quote, you will need the dimensions and packed weight of the kayak. The Steller sea kayak will measure (LxWxH) about 204″x28″x18″, once packaged, and weigh about 37 lbs.