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High-Capacity Great Auk
Sale
High-Capacity Great Auk
High-Capacity Great Auk Thumbnail
High-Capacity Great Auk Thumbnail

High-Capacity Great Auk

Builder Testimonials

The High-Capacity Great Auk has the volume to carry a large load efficiently. The boat for back-country expeditions.

  • Skill Level Intermediate
  • Estimated Build Time 180 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 enjoy taking long adventures in your kayak
  • You want a kayak that will still perform well, even with 400 lbs of payload aboard
  • You are a larger than average paddler with a shoe size of 14

  • 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!

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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.
High-Capacity Great Auk
High-Capacity Great Auk
High-Capacity Great Auk Thumbnail
High-Capacity Great Auk Thumbnail

Specifications

Length
18'0"
Beam
30"
Cockpit Size
32" x 23"
Hull Weight
54 lbs.
Paddler Weight
300 - 400 lbs.
Max Payload
600 lbs.
Knee Height
13"
Max. Men's Shoe Size
14

Performance

Stability

5 out of 5
Very Tippy
Very Stable

Speed

2 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

3 out of 5
Requires Patience
Very Easy

Overview

If you are going on a months-long tour up the Inside Passage you might want to carry a lot of supplies. The High-Capacity Great Auk is the kayak to do it. It has the capacity to carry a large load efficiently. It is stable enough to be rigged with a small sail.

This boat may not be appropriate if you feel you just need a little bit more capacity than normal, it is best suited for situations where you need a total capacity over 350 lbs. and will still perform well with over 600 lbs on board.

If you're a big paddler, you will find this design efficient and comfortable while still able to carry a lot of gear.

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
$2,298.00 $2,030.00

This Auk kit includes The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, CNC-cut for...

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

Alternative Configurations

$1,699.00

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.
$385.00

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

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

 
$240.00

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

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

 
$129.00

Kit Boxes  1: 24 x 4 x 4 (inches) » 1.50 lbs.



Kit Boxes
  1: 24 x 4 x 4 (inches) » 1.50 lbs.

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.
$195.00

Many kayaks can benefit from a retractable skeg. There will b...

Many kayaks can benefit from a retractable skeg. There will be conditions in which no skeg is needed at all, other occasions when just a little skeg will help, and days in smooth water with a strong breeze over the aft quarter when a skeg is essential.

The Skeg Kit is comprised of three basic components: the skeg itself, the skeg box where the skeg lives in the boat, and the control slider. The skeg is a fin that can be retracted in and out. The skeg box is just big enough and wide enough to hold the skeg. The control slider is mounted up near the cockpit where it is convenient to the paddler.
$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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