Skin On Frames
Skin-on-frame (SOF) kayaks are a real quick and easy way to make a boat. You make a wooden frame that is then covered with a skin. The first ones made in the arctic were made from salvaged driftwood that was lashed together and then covered in skins from seals. Modern frames can now be created using exterior plywood and dimensional lumber found at your local lumberyard and skinned in fabric that you can buy at Wally-world… Crazy.
They’re simply great for kids. Why spend 100+ hours building a strip boat that your two-year old will outgrow in a couple years when you can spend 20 hours and less than $100 on a SOF?
Skin-on-frames, aside being great for children, are also great for prototyping a design that will be eventually made using strips or plywood. Due to the flexibility of the frame and fabric it’s not perfect but you get a rough idea how the strip version will handle without wasting a lot of time. That said, a well-built SOF is also very rugged and can last for years.
The following are skin-on-frames (SOF) that we have made for the family. Each boat has it’s own page with project specific information, photo galleries and links to their construction.
The "Pink Jaguar" was made for my eldest daughter, Lena, for her 5th birthday. It's a skin-on-frame version of our SEA-12 child kayak.
The “Pink Pearl” was built as a Christmas present for youngest daughter, Danielle, when she was about two years old. The name is a spin on that fact that a few years back we built three BTD Black Pearls. So why not a “Pink” Pearl? My wife picked out the fabric. What would be better for a girl’s kayak than pink, sparkly fabric with smiling skulls with bows?!
The “Karner Blue” is the prototype of our new Saco 13 recreational kayak. For the prototype we built it as a fuselage-style skin-on-frame using 1/2" ACX exterior plywood frames and northern white cedar stringers. The hull is covered with a rugged, multi-layer skin system using a woven polypropylene called Vectracloth laminated to a heat-shrunk Dacron base. The heat-shrunk Dacron is often used by aircraft home builders. The deck was painted with Interlux Brighsides Polyurethane. The deck is cotton-polyester laminated to the same Dacron base. It's coated with a clear water-based poly.
The “Sharkbait,” named after a scene in “Finding Nemo,” was built as a Christmas present for our two year-old daughter, Lena. It’s covered in 18 mil clear PVC and clear-coated Wally-world fabric. Nothing fancy. I built a two-way rocking cradle (front-back and side-side) for use indoors. I also carved a quick Greenland paddle for her from a scrap of cedar. We couldn’t get her out of it Christmas morning. Coos 8 design by CSFW.
The Ammonoosuc 13 was built for Christine’s parents for Christmas. I didn’t have time to build a wood stripper so thought I’d try a skin-on-frame. To speed construction in lieu of a traditional frame made from bent ribs I used plywood frames with wooden stringers. It’s similar to what is used on commercial folding kayaks. It was built in about 26 hours and weighs only 30 pounds. It’s covered in 18oz PVC coated polyester (same stuff they use for truck tarps). Ammo13 design by CSFW.
