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21st Century Kayaks didn't really start out to be a business. Mike Devlin and I shared an interest in the historical roots of kayaking. We were both fascinated with the high performance, light-weight designs of the Inuit people, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
I had already built several skin-on-frame kayaks, starting with my own version of Robert Morris's "Recovery Kayak," which was, in turn, inspired by a museum specimen of an Inuit "Retrieval Kayak." After building several versions and different sizes, I found that I really enjoyed modifying, and hopefully improving the designs bit by bit.
When Mike couldn't decide on which traditional Inuit design he wanted to build, we decided to design our own. Rather than following traditional methods, which include steaming and bending ribs, lashing the pieces together with sinew or "artificial sinew," we decided to design our kayaks more in the footsteps of George Dyson. George Dyson, author of “Baidarka the Kayak,” is a pioneer in the resurgance of skin-on-frame kayaks, building his kayaks with space age materials and methods. In 1975, he actually launched a 40 foot-long kayak with a frame built of aircraft aluminum tubing and skinned with nylon fabric. This gigantic kayak had seperate cockpits for 6 paddlers.
Rather than aircraft aluminum, Mike and I decided that we would assemble our kayak's frames using Okume marine plywood - the best in the world. As a matter of fact, its quality is certified by the famous Lloyd's of London. I designed the parts on my computer and pre-cut the frame pieces using a computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machine for its incredible accuracy. With all of the kayak's parts pre-cut on the CNC, we didn't even need to own a saw to assemble our kit -- it was that easy.
Like Dyson, the "skin" that we use for our kayak designs is ballistic nylon fabric. You probably guessed it - "ballistic" refers to the fact that this fabric was designed to stop bullets. To seal and waterproof this fantastically tough fabric, we researched a number of different coatings and finally settled on a unique formulation of a sealer that will coat and seal the wood frame and the ballistic nylon.
Mike and I slowly began to realize that we were doing something more than just building a couple of boats for our own use. We were doing something new. We were designing kayaks that were not only light weight, high performance, and tough -- we were designing kayaks that would be so easy to assemble that almost anyone would be able to do it. As the principal designer, I began to think in terms of making these kayaks easier and easier to assemble, and along the way I had some ideas that were innovative enough to warrant patenting.
So we decided to form 21st Century Kayaks as a business, and produce kayak kits for sale to the public. Our first designs are geared toward newer kayakers, yet they have a performance level that will please the more advanced kayaker.
Mike and I decided that our kit concept should be easy enough to assemble, that this slogan would apply: "If you have a two week vacation, you can assemble this kayak the first week and paddle it the second.
What does this mean to you? It means that with a 21st Century Kayak Kit, you get a kayak that will perform as well as, or better than, any comparably sized kayak on the market. Not only that, but it will be as light in weight as kayaks that are four or five times the price, and you will have genuine pride that you assembled and finished this beautiful kayak yourself.
Got a week? Assemble a kayak. It really is that easy.