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Great Auk Double built by Neil T, Denver CO.
Sale
Great Auk Double
Sale
A Great Auk Double sea kayak paddling with humpback whales in Monterey Bay by Terry F.
Great Auk Double built by Neil T, Denver CO. Thumbnail
Great Auk Double Thumbnail
A Great Auk Double sea kayak paddling with humpback whales in Monterey Bay by Terry F. Thumbnail

Great Auk Double

Builder Testimonials

An efficient and capable strip-planked boat for a pair of skilled kayakers.

  • Skill Level Intermediate
  • Estimated Build Time 200 Hours

Builders will benefit from some woodworking, epoxy, and fiberglass experience. Compared to CLC's "Beginner" projects, there will be more cutting and fitting of parts, and documentation is less comprehensive.

This time estimate assumes builders have already built a couple of stitch-and-glue boats.

Build this boat if...

  • You and your partner's kayaking skills range from beginner to intermediate
  • You want a kayak with plenty of room to carry gear on multi-day adventures
  • You want a kayak that is stable, swift, and moves nimbly through a chop

  • For Woodcrafters

    Boatbuilders, sharpen your block planes! 

  • Versatile

    A design that does everything well

  • Quality Materials

    Only the best professional-grade materials

If you love woodworking, this is a project where you get to make wood shavings. You'll need to be comfortable with a sharp plane and a Japanese pull-saw, but the reward is a work of craftsmanship that's all your own.

Fast but comfortable, comfortable but sleek, sophisticated but easy to build, elegant but straightforward. If you're going to have just one boat...

Quality Materials

Our kits ship with the same first-class marine plywood, timber, epoxy, and fiberglass that we use in our own boatbuilding shop. It's not cheap, but these boats are meant to last forever!

 Build Your Kit
Shipping & Returns

Builders also looked at...

Take One of our Boatbuilding Classes

We offer classes for many of the boats we sell. Teaching sites stretch from Maryland to Washington State and from Maine to California. Click here to find out more.
Great Auk Double built by Neil T, Denver CO.

Great Auk Double built by Neil T, Denver CO.

Great Auk Double
A Great Auk Double sea kayak paddling with humpback whales in Monterey Bay by Terry F.

A Great Auk Double sea kayak paddling with humpback whales in Monterey Bay by Terry F.

Great Auk Double built by Neil T, Denver CO. Thumbnail
Great Auk Double Thumbnail
A Great Auk Double sea kayak paddling with humpback whales in Monterey Bay by Terry F. Thumbnail

Specifications

Length
21'0"
Beam
26"
Cockpit Size
33" x 19"
Hull Weight
56 lbs.
Paddler Weight
200 - 400 lbs.
Max Payload
600 lbs.
Knee Height
10"
Max. Men's Shoe Size
13

Performance

Stability

5 out of 5
Very Tippy
Very Stable

Speed

3 out of 5
Cruiser
Racer

Cockpit Room

5 out of 5
Close Fit
Huge Cockpit

Payload

5 out of 5
Day Tripper
Freight Hauler

Ease of Construction

2 out of 5
Requires Patience
Very Easy
Great Auk Double built by Terry F.
Great Auk Double built by Terry F.

Overview

By stretching out the Great Auk into the Great Auk Double, Nick Schade has created a tandem sea kayak that will be comfortable for occasional paddlers while providing an efficient and capable boat for a pair of skilled kayakers. The long waterline allows a couple of strong paddlers to really step out and go fast, while the respectable volume provides enough capacity to carry gear for multi-day trips.

The Double is longer and a little wider than the Great Auk 17 so it can carry the heavier load of two people plus their gear. It takes the sleek lines of the Great Auk to make a fast and comfortable tandem for intermediate paddlers. This is not just a simple stretch of the Great Auk. The shape has also been adjusted to add more volume near the ends. This combined with a higher bow will help the boat rise easily over waves.

This boat fits in between the Guillemot Double and Guillemot Fast Double in terms of performance. It will be faster than the Guillemot Double because it is a little longer and narrower. By reducing the beam, this kayak is a little less stable than the Guillemot Double. It is not as long or as narrow as the Fast Double though.

Do you fit in this kayak?  Study our kayak fit chart.

Our strip-built and hybrid kits ship with 50% Western Red and 50% Alaskan Yellow cedar bead & cove strips. Photos on our website and printed materials may show patterns and accent strips with walnut or other materials. Optional walnut strips are available and can be shipped with kit orders.

Buying Options

Choose Your Boatbuilding Experience

Select the components that are the best fit for your strip-planking project.

  1. Select Your Configuration

    Build From a Kit:
    Most builders start with the Base Kit. It’s all there.
    Build From Scratch:
    Build from scratch using our Plans & Manual.
    Build From a Wood Parts Only Kit:
    For those who have their own supply of epoxy, fiberglass, and hardware.
    Forms and Strongback Only Kit:
    Just the computer-cut stuff: the forms and strongback.
    Order Study Plans or Manuals:
    Like to study up a bit first? Download study plans or a copy of the assembly manual. 

  2. Choose Options and Add-Ons

    Additional Components:
    You can choose colors for your strips! Also add rudders, hatch options, spray skirts, and more. 

  3. Get Building!

    Kits feature all of the latest tweaks to ease assembly, including slot-together molds, CNC-cut marine plywood cockpit recesses, and precision-milled strips.

Standard Configuration

Sale
$2,598.00 $2,260.00

This Auk kit includes Nick Schade's manual, The Strip-Built ...

This Auk kit includes Nick Schade's manual, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, includes CNC-cut forms & strongback, hatch blanks, epoxy kit, fiberglass, precision-milled bead-and-cove Western Red & Alaskan Yellow strips, foam "tractor" seat, Rapid Pulse backband, Keepers footbraces, hardware, and drawings.

 

Alternative Configurations

$1,969.00

This Auk "wood parts only" kit includes drawings, CNC-cut for...

This Auk "wood parts only" kit includes drawings, CNC-cut forms & strongback, hatch blanks, and precision-milled bead-and-cove Western Red & Alaskan Yellow cedar strips. Typical "wood parts only" kit buyers have an existing or ready supply of their own epoxy, fiberglass, and hardware.

 

 
$400.00

This Auk kit includes drawings, and CNC-cut forms & stron...

This Auk kit includes drawings, and CNC-cut forms & strongback.

 
$280.00

This Auk kit includes drawings, and CNC-cut forms.  

This Auk kit includes drawings, and CNC-cut forms.

plans

 
$129.00

Additional Options

$75.00

Nick Schade suggests MiniCel Foam for bulkheads in his boats....

Nick Schade suggests MiniCel Foam for bulkheads in his boats. Two 3-inch blocks ready for fitting.
$24.95

A kit for flush hatch hold-downs, requiring no deck hardware ...

A kit for flush hatch hold-downs, requiring no deck hardware to sully your strip-planked deck. Internally mounted bungies hook to hatches. Includes machined wooden parts, hardware, and instructions. Read the instructions here.

Kit includes enough material for two hatches. Specifically: eight wooden blocks, bungie cord, stainless steel hooks, and hatch cover reinforcements.

Almost any hatch system, flush or otherwise, will work with the Invisible Hatch Hold Down scheme. These kayak kits include flush hatch kits: Shearwaters, Arctic Hawk, Sea Island Sport, Night Heron S&G and all Guillemot strip-planked kayaks.

 
$21.95

By Nick Schade. 202 pages, 1998. "Strip-building" - assemblin...

By Nick Schade. 202 pages, 1998. "Strip-building" - assembling a pile of thin wood strips into a functional hull - has been a popular canoe-building method for many years. Now boatbuilder Nick Schade, an engineer by training and a self-professed sea kayaking addict, has refined this time-tested method to build the more complex shapes of sea kayaks. The method is simple, forgiving, allows a liberal amount of design flexibility, and requires a minimum number of tools.

In The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, Schade presents full plans for three elegant designs inspired by the grace and seaworthiness of the Inuit and Aleut skin boats. Profusely illustrated instructions provide the details that will guide you through the process.

Videos

How to Assemble the Little AUK Strongback: Step-by-Step Guide S4-E4

Strip Planking the Little Auk 11, Part 1, S4-E5

Finishing the Hull Bottom of the Little Auk 11, Part 2, S4-E6

A Guide to Fitting the Outer Stem & Fairing a Strip Planked Kayak. S4-E9

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I order this kit?

Click on the Buying Options tab the top left of this page and follow the directions.

If I buy one of your boat kits, what else will I need?

Chesapeake Light Craft kits contain all the parts and materials you need to build the boat. The kit includes pre-cut parts, hardware, epoxy, fiberglass, plans and instructions. Our standard kayak kits also have the seats, hatches, bulkheads, footbraces, and the deck-rigging. About the only thing kits don't include is the final finish: paint or varnish. Your boat's color scheme is entirely up to you.

You'll need a few ordinary tools, like a cordless drill, a decent 5-inch sander, and for most boats a wood plane. You'll need disposables such as sandpaper and paint brushes and mixing cups.

You need a workspace a couple of feet bigger all the way around than the boat you want to build, and you'll need to be able to maintain temperatures between about 55 degrees F and 95 degrees F during steps when epoxy is being applied or curing. Since a lot of boatbuilding gets done during winter, we've written up some tips on how to heat a cold space cheaply, easily, and safely.

How much does this boat weigh and how much can it carry?

The weight and payload of this boat, along with other statistics such length and beam, can be found under Specs in the Specifications section, which is just below the lead image seen at the top of this page.

Can you send me the plans digitally?

Sorry, but until digital rights management technology for marine architectural work catches up to that used for books and music, we are unable to transmit digital plans. Currently, only study plans and manuals can be sent digitally.

Classes

Take One of our Boatbuilding Classes

We offer classes for many of the boats we sell. Teaching sites stretch from Maryland to Washington State and from Maine to California. Click here to find out more.

View Classes

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We’re here to help with any questions you might have during the build process.

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