Nick Schade is following up the success of his first book on building kayaks with a new book providing instructions to build almost any kind of small boat using the strip-built technique.

“Strip-planking” is a method of building boats using narrow, thin strips of wood edge-glued together. It is also commonly known as “strip-building”, “woodstrip” or “cedar-strip” for the most common wood used in the process. It is a practical, easy way for inexperienced boat builders to make a wooden boat. While the method is used to make quite large boats, it is particularly well suited for small boats of the car-toppable variety.

This book describes the procedure of building a boat with strips of wood, covering those strips with fiberglass and epoxy and creating a strong, lightweight and beautiful boat from the beginning stages all the way through to completion. It provides instructions to build three very different boat, a pram style dinghy, a small, double-paddle canoe, and a high performance sea kayak. Beyond learning how to build these particular boats, the book provides enough background that you should be able to build just about any small boat using the strip-planked method.

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Designs Offered in the Book

The book offers complete plans to build 3 amazing boats with all the information required included in the book. The goal of these designs is: first to be excellent boats, but also to provide good case studies of all the techniques discussed in the book. Through these examples you can see how to adapted the skills learned in the book to just about any small boat building project.

Coot Dinghy Construction

An easy to build Dinghy

Learn the basics of Strip Planked construction with this easy to build 8' pram style row boat.

Nymph Canoe Construction

A sophisticated yet minimalist Canoe

Understand the techniques through this minimalist double paddle canoe. The process is the same for any sized canoe but in an elegant little package.

Petrel Kayak Construction

A high performance Sea Kayak

Take your boat building skills to another level with book-matched strips and staple free construction. This kayak can go anywhere its pilot is willing to take it and it will look good doing it.