After paddling the Storm, I was quite smitten and thought long and hard about building a kayak. The hardest part was deciding which design. The boats I considered were the One Ocean Expedition, Guillemot Night Heron, Outer Island. In the end I settled on the King, a Redfish Kayak design. I purchased the plans in September 2007 and began work on the forms while I milled the wood into strips. Stripping began September 26, 2007. I completed the kayak in July 2008.
The finished kayak is constructed of 351 separate pieces of wood. The hull is of redwood and western red cedar with an accent stripe of basswood. The deck is western red cedar with basswood designs inlayed into the deck. The cockpit recess is constructed of mahogany with walnut and basswood coaming and cockpit rim. I constructed the hatch rims out of fiberglass according to Vaclav Stejskal (One Ocean Kayaks) and used soft pad eyes for the hatch tab.
I used 6oz fiberglass, double-layered on the hull inside in the cockpit area and outside below the waterline. Additional pieces of fiberglass cloth reinforces the keel at bow and stern. Epoxy used was MAS Low Viscosity and the finish was Interlux Schooner.
