When we build each wood kayak, depending on the complexity of design and crafting takes between 100 and 200 hours to complete. Each kayak we make is custom built, meaning from the kayak plans to the kayak building it is built for you. When we receive your order, one boat builder is assigned your wood kayak plan. They hand build your kayak from start to finish.

We use traditional wood working techniques and tools, and focus on the custom craftsmanship that goes into building your wood kayak. This process takes longer, but is the way we make sure the quality of every hand crafted wood kayak we build. Most visitors to our wooden boat shop are suprised to find more hand tools than big power tools. The main hand tools we use are the same tools used for centuries to build wooden boats: chisels, block planes, rasps, and hand saws.

Our stapled wood kayaks are built using the traditional staple construction technique where the strip planks are stapled into place. Once the planks have dried the staples are removed leaving small staple marks on the surface of the kayak. Our stapless boats take longer to build but do not use staples leaving an unmarked surface on the boat.

Often kayak wood is hand selected at the lumber yard specifically for your wood kayak. Sometimes we have a wait list for our finished wood kayaks. Our current estimated delivery time and wait list can be found here.

During kayak building, the customer receives frequent updates on the construction of their wood built kayak via a private web site including progress photographs. Customers can also receive, direct email and phone contact with their kayak builder.