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Kid's Kayak - Skin-on-Frame

Kudzucraft Tadpole - Design Jeff S. Horton

This light kid's kayak looks like the boats the parents use.
It has a lenght of 365 cms, a width of 48cms, and a height of 19 cms.

It's weight is about 12 kgs, and can carry about 68 kgs (boat with paddler) as a maximum. The minimal total weight should not be less than about 23 kgs. Otherwise the kayak becomes rather tippy.

The fuselage frame method shown in Jeff Horton's book (see beolw) allows a fast and easy build by yourself.

Origin

Tadpole is designed and drawn by Jeff S. Horton, Kudzucraft, USA.

Build

Instruction, Plans, Kits, Material

The book does not contain any plan drawings for the build.

Printed 1:1 plans can be bought from

Kudzucraft

Buying the plans saves you a lot of time to be spent in drawing the forms from the offsets in the book to the plywood for cutting. One plan is the license to build one boat. Each further boat build with these plans requires the payment of an additional license fee.

Kudzucraft sells Kits for your build too. They contain - depending on their type - all cut out frames, additional goods needed to complete the boat, or all together.

Kudzucraft sells too the Polyesterfabric needed to skin your boat.

Material

The boat is built from spruce, plywood, artificial sinew, tissue and varnish.
The plywood must be glued weather-, water- and boilproof.

Offsets

The offset tables in the book contain some errors. Here are the fixed/correct ones.

KUDZU CRAFT
*Tadpole Kids-Kayak Offsets*

*FRAME*
	English – inch								Metric – mm
		Sections									Sections
	Frame Location	Y			Z			X	Frame Location	Y	Z	X
Nbr.	From STERN !								From STERN !
	foot / inch	inch	inch fractal	inch fractal	inch	inch fractal	inch fractal	inch
6	1' 0“	0	0	32	1	4	32	12	305 mm	0	29	305
		1	11	32	2	10	32			34	59
		2	9	32	6	29	32			58	175
		0	0	32	6	30	32			0	176

5	3' 3“	0	0	32	0	18	32	39	990 mm	0	14	991
		5	3	32	1	19	32			129	40
		6	26	32	6	11	32			173	161
		0	0	32	6	13	32			0	163

4	4' 6“	0	0	32	0	9	32	54	1'372 mm	0	7	1372
		6	21	32	1	13	32			169	36
		8	19	32	6	5	32			218	156
		0	0	32	6	11	32			0	161

3	6' 4“	0	0	32	0	6	32	76	1'930 mm	0	5	1930
		7	11	32	1	12	32			187	35
		9	15	32	6	5	32			241	156
		0	0	32	9	19	32			0	244

2	8' 6“	0	0	32	0	19	32	102	2'591 mm	0	15	2591
		5	12	32	1	22	32			137	43
		7	16	32	6	25	32			191	172
		0	0	32	8	23	32			0	221

1	10' 6“	0	0	32	1	14	32	126	3'200 mm	0	37	3200
		1	15	32	2	23	32			37	69
		3	19	32	7	31	32			91	202
		0	0	32	8	21	32			0	220


	*STEMS*
	Bow	X			Z					X	Z
		inch	inch fractal	inch fractal	inch	inch fractal	inch fractal
		0	0	32	0	0	32			0	0
		3	5	32	0	5	32			80	4
		6	9	32	0	18	32			160	14
		8	22	32	1	11	32			221	34
		11	7	32	2	26	32			285	71
		14	13	32	5	2	32			366	129
		18	0	32	7	21	32			457	194
		0	0	32	7	7	32			0	183

	Stern	X			Z					X	Z
		inch	inch fractal	inch fractal	inch	inch fractal	inch fractal
		0	0	32	0	0	32			0	0
		3	16	32	0	3	32			89	2
		5	17	32	0	11	32			140	9
		6	27	32	0	28	32			174	22
		8	21	32	2	10	32			220	59
		12	0	32	6	3	32			305	155
		0	0	32	5	25	32			0	147

	*COAMING*	*Inside Line (Coaming Hole)*
		X			Y					X	Y
		inch	inch fractal	inch fractal	inch	inch fractal	inch fractal
		0	0	32	0	0	32			0	0
		0	4	32	2	5	32			3	55
		0	21	32	4	13	32			17	112
		1	19	32	5	20	32			40	143
		3	18	32	6	19	32			90	167
		6	28	32	6	27	32			175	174
		13	1	32	6	6	32			331	157
		18	10	32	4	24	32			465	121
		20	13	32	3	20	32			518	92
		21	16	32	2	15	32			546	63
		22	2	32	1	11	32			560	34
		22	7	32	0	0	32			564	0