Strip-Planked Kayaks

The Guillemot Collection from Nick Schade

In 2007, Chesapeake Light Craft teamed up with renowned kayak and small-boat designer Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks to offer high-quality kits based on his designs. Since 1993, home builders around the world have used Schade’s plans and instructions, earning Guillemot Kayaks a reputation for elegant, high-performance boats.

Schade’s 1998 book The Strip-Built Sea Kayak helped establish Guillemot Kayaks as a leading authority on strip-built construction, a method that produces ultralight boats from thin wood strips and fiberglass. A follow-up, Building Strip-Planked Boats, was published in 2009.

Guillemot Kayaks designs both stitch-and-glue plywood and cedar-strip boats. Chesapeake Light Craft provides complete and partial kits with computer-cut parts, pre-milled cedar strips, plans, fiberglass, epoxy, and outfitting gear.

The strip-planked models require more patience and are best suited to builders with some prior boatbuilding experience—often including a stitch-and-glue project. Typical strip-boat manuals provide general guidance and leave some details to the builder’s interpretation.

Check out our Kayak Comparison Chart to figure out which of our kayaks will be a good fit for you.