If you’re someone who likes to do something yourself, than you’re most likely someone who also likes to do something better and or cheaper by doing it yourself. If you were to buy a kayak similar to the ones shown here it would be around $3000 to $4000. If you bought a kit from Chesapeake Light Craft it would be about $1500. If you don’t mind working with plans and cutting large sheets of plywood you could save another $400. However, when I was considering building these kayaks I still couldn’t justify paying $1100 and two weeks of work to get one kayak that would perform as well as a $700 to $1200 used kayak from Craigslist. Fortunately I had some friends that felt the same way, and through the economies of scale, optimizing of plans, and sourcing of materials we were able to lower the price per kayak to between $500 and $600.
Economics of scale
Most everyone knows that when you buy a lot of something you can get a better deal, but the same can be true for making a lot of something. My friends and I made five kayaks; four of which used the same set of plans which made repeat-ability much easier. Here are the main ways that the economics of scale worked to our advantage:
- Templates
The advantage in this case was that once we cutout one set of parts from cheap sheathing plywood, we could use those parts as templates for a router, which lessened the probability for error, and was almost as fast as a CNC router.
- Expert repetition
Once we got to the layup for the epoxy and fiberglass, the procedure for all of the kayaks was the same. After the second kayak we were very proficient at that aspect of the build, which also usually requires the most skill.
- Bulk cuts
Because the kayaks were 16ft long and plywood comes in 8ft lengths each hull piece needed a scarf joint. When that type of joint is cut all of the pieces can be stacked up and only one cut needs to be made.
Optimizing of plans
Originally we had only planed on building four kayaks but after simplifying the plans we were able to build five without any extra materials. The original plans had an extra plywood surface around the cockpit, and a plywood cockpit ring. we removed the extra plywood surface and made the ring from cedar strips. Here are the main reasons why we changed the plans:
- “It looked better”
The main reason we changed the plans was that we didn’t want any plywood visible on the deck and didn’t want any extra surfaces around the cockpit.
- It saved time
The time frame we had to complete the kayaks was one month so anything that saved time without compromising quality was a good idea. The extra surface on the deck would have been a extra day if it were plywood, or an extra two days if it were cedar strips.
- It saved materials
This is not really a reason why we changed the plans but it was a nice side benefit. We found that if only the hull was made from plywood, we could make one kayak from one and a half sheets, if the half sheet was cut parallel to the 8ft length.
Sourcing of materials
The main reason we built a lot of kayaks as cost effectively as we did was because we looked for bulk deals of what we needed online, used recycled lumber from an old deck, and didn’t need to perchance any tools for the project.
- Look for bulk deals
Bulk materials sales usually come up regularly online but they don’t come up very frequently. We had planned to build the kayaks a year in advance so that we would have time to find bulk sales on ebay were the cost per unit is much lower.
- Use recycled lumber
Lumber is the easiest material for anyone to find at a cost effective price if they don’t mind a few hours of re sawing lumber. On our project, one of my friends salvaged enough lumber from an old deck demo to cover one and a half kayak decks. My dad also had some left over cedar strips from building a canoe which was enough to cover another one and a half decks.
- Don’t buy any tools
Most of the time when a lot of people want to build something someone in the group has the tools. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t buy any tools, but that you most likely don’t need to. Even if someone doesn’t have any tools or friends, it’s much more cost effective to go to a maker center where all the tools are provided and set up. In our case one of my friends had a shop and tools that were available during the winter.
This blog was meant for those who like to build somethings fun and not spend a lot in the process. As mentioned earlier the easiest material to source is lumber, but more specifically non plywood lumber. The kayak design that we chose had a plywood hull and a cedar strip deck. We chose that design because the build time was much quicker. However, if the entire kayak was cedar strips the cost could be much lower. Also, here is a rough cost break down of everything needed for one 16ft kayak except the wood:
$100 plans
$200 epoxy (one of gallon resin with hardener)($100 per gallon in bulk)
$100 4oz fiberglass 20yds
$100 paint & varnish
$100-200 hardware (seat, back rest, foot braces, handles, spray skirt,)