homebuilt aluminum kayak

[billconner]

Thought this was interesting. Had not read of homebuilt aluminum kayaks or canoes.

One-of-a-kind aluminum watercraft is like the DeLorean of kayaks

Touring kayaks are typically made of plastic, composites or sometimes wood, but unlike canoes, almost never aluminum. That didn't phase Brennen Kunka, however, who recently built his own all-aluminum kayak from the ground up – and it's awesome!

newatlas.com

 

[Foxyotter]

I thought the only benefit to aluminum canoes or kayaks are storing outside and recyclable. They are nice when you want to fish and don't have an anchor. Just pull up to any rock and they seem to stick like glue. Three cheers for the DIY.

 

[billconner]

They do tend to be less expensive and indestructible.

 

[Tsuga8]

We had aluminum canoes at summer camp and would have fun ramming each other. Inadvisable in W/C and composite, but lots of fun in aluminum!

 

[Boreal Birch]

The Forest Service’s YCC camp that I worked at also had aluminum canoes. One of the weekends main event events was the canoe jousting tournament. One kid paddling in the stern, the other kid standing on the bow seat with an aluminum pole with a boxing glove tied and taped to each end. Objective was to knock the bow paddler into the lake, just like in the days of old, when Knights were bold, except with canoes, instead of horses. Was a lot of fun until some kid got his toe caught in the seat somehow, broke his toe, yelling in pain as he went into the lake, he sucked up a bunch of water, almost drowned. The Forest Service put a end to that sport in short order.
The camp’s Lydic Lake was where the Minnesota DNR kept their Musky brood stock. The lake also had an over population of small mouth bass as musky food. It was fun to teach the campers how to fly fish, with the always hungry bass as eager participants. Evenings were filled with campers in paddle boats honing their fly fishing skills. Occasionally a musky would take a hooked bass, which was real excitement for the new fly fishermen, none were ever landed to my knowledge. Fifty years later, fly fishing for musky is a big deal in the Midwest.

 

[Boatman53]

Here you go Boreal. It looks like they used toilet plungers on the ends of the poles.

Jim