Wood Duckling 8

Kayaks for kids are tough.  On the one hand, kids have great balance and are naturally athletic, so they take to kayaks like ducks.  So there's no reason to put them in a kayak that's tubby or oversized for them.  They want a kayak that is just as good as their parents' kayaks, thank you!  On the other hand, kids grow like weeds, and we've watched them outgrow a homebuilt kayak before we even got it finished and launched!

So a good kid's kayak must have three things: Excellent performance to keep them engaged, a capacity range wide enough to absorb several growth spurts, and an easy construction process that is fast enough that the kayak gets done before college applications begin.   

Difficult kayak design briefs are Eric Schade's specialty, so he got the call. He's swung several out of the park with the Shearwater and Wood Duck range.  For young people, he has adapted the madly popular Wood Duck series and created the Wood Duckling.

The Wood Duckling's small size gives up nothing in sophistication or good looks.  We considered making the kayak a few inches shorter than 8 feet so that it could be cut from a single sheet of plywood, but nope:  that would make it too tubby.  Obviously this isn't a kayak for sprinting, but the Wood Duckling will coast alongside Mom and Dad with little effort.  It's got plenty of stability and the dry, water-shedding deck will keep them paddling well into the Fall. Just like the grown-up kayaks, there is a proper watertight storage hatch to hide a change of clothes, snacks, action figures, beach toys, or even their fair share of overnight gear.  

The Wood Duckling will handle kids from 35 to 100 pounds.  We tested the boat to 220 lbs, at which point the deck was awash but the little boat was still stable and afloat.  The 100-lb maximum  will still work for some high school freshmen so we're confident you'll get a lot of growing room out of your Duckling!  The kit packages are small enough to ship through UPS, which is handy for everyone and keeps the cost down.

At only 22 pounds completed and rigged, this is a kayak that the little ones can manage on the beach, too!  It will fit inside the larger minivans, with the bow just poking between the front seats.  

Construction is identical to the larger Wood Ducks.  With parental help, your junior boatbuilder can assemble the panels like puzzle pieces, in fact, using the computer-cut "puzzle joints" on those pieces.  The computer has also drilled the holes for all of the copper wire "stitches" that hold the hull panels together temporarily.  After stitching, you will "tack weld" the hull parts together with epoxy. Then remove the wires.  Epoxy fillets and layers of fiberglass fabric inside and out give you a very tough Duckling.  Tough enough, that should you---accidentally, of course---drop the boat on pavement, it should not do any harm.  A final finish of varnish brings up a lovely deep gloss on the okoume hull.  Many of our Duckling builders opt for the deep-reddish hue of the optional sapele deck.

The best part:  this is the quickest kit in our catalog to build.  Set aside about 50 hours on average to do a creditable job of it.  This is a perfect first-time boatbuilding project for kids or their kid-at-heart folks.

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