FAQ
How much is it going to cost to send X to Y?
My country has restrictions on importing wood products, can I still order a coaming or kayak ribs?
I ordered plans or a video course, but I didn’t receive anything
I already have an account, but the course I purchased isn’t showing up on my Student Dashboard
Do you offer plans in metric measurements?
How much should I budget for my build?
Do the videos expire? Can I watch on multiple devices?
I don’t have internet in my shop, can I download the videos to watch later?
Why can’t I buy canoe plans without the building course?
Why can’t I buy kayak plans without the kayak building course?
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How much is it going to cost to send X to Y?
Check out our shipping page for an overview of our shipping rates. If you have additional questions, contact liz@capefalconkayaks.com with your delivery address and a list of what you plan to purchase for a shipping quote.
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My country has restrictions on importing wood products, can I still order a coaming or kayak ribs?
So far, we have not had any issues sending wood products internationally, even to countries with very strict regulations like Australia and New Zealand. When in doubt, its best to check if your country has any specific restrictions. Our products are Oregon White Oak, quercus gerryana.
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I ordered plans or a video course, but I didn’t receive anything
All of our plans and videos are hosted on our online learning platform. Please check your email or spam folder for an email titled “Welcome to Cape Falcon Kayak” and follow the instructions to create your account. Once you login, you will see purchased plans or courses on your Student Dashboard. Plans will not be emailed to you directly.
If you already had an account on our learning platform and used the same email address on your account during checkout, you will not receive an email beyond your purchase receipt. Your new plans or courses will automatically appear on your Student Dashboard.
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I already have an account, but the course I purchased isn’t showing up on my Student Dashboard.
If you already have an account with us, you must check out with the email address you use to log in at cape-falcon-kayak.thinkific.com in order for your course or plan set to be attached to that account. If you don't see your course or you've received a Welcome email prompting you to create a new account, please send an email to liz@capefalconkayaks.com. Include your order number and the email address on your existing account, and we’ll attach the courses to your existing account.
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Do you offer plans in metric measurements?
Because the accompanying video courses call out imperial measurements, and we are constantly making updates to both the plans and videos, we’ve found that metric plans leave a lot of room for potential confusion or error. For builders outside the US, we recommend purchasing a metric to imperial tape measure to make your build easier.
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How much should I budget for my build?
In addition to the cost of the course and plans, you should budget $550–$750 for a kayak build. Average materials cost for a canoe runs around $450. Materials costs vary based on the size boat you are building, local availability and shipping costs, so that could be as low as $300 for a small pack canoe or $700 for a tandem canoe.
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Do the videos expire? Can I watch on multiple devices?
You can login and view the course on any device. Enrolling in a course gives you lifetime access to the course material, including any updates or additions we make to the material in the future. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons we created these video courses instead of writing a book, because our designs and techniques are constantly evolving and we want you to always have access to the best and most up-to-date information.
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I don’t have internet in my shop, can I download the videos to watch later?
You can download individual videos to your device, but be aware that file sizes can be quite large.
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Why can’t I buy canoe plans without the building course?
Because this is a building system not a plan for a specific boat, there are no standalone plans.
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Why can’t I buy kayak plans without the kayak building course?
Unlike nearly all other forms of boatbuilding, skin-on-frame building has never seen the sort of commercial application that leads to good standardized building practices. Instead, what we have is a small handful of books written by experienced hobbyists. Using the techniques in these books, skin-on-frame building is slower, less efficient, heavier, and less durable than it needs to be.
This is where I started out 20 years ago. Using these books in combination with open access to kayak historian Harvey Golden's research library, I quickly surpassed the existing knowledge, building 15 kayaks my first year and almost twice that my second. From there I taught in-person skin-on-frame kayak building classes, producing between 50–80 kayaks per year for the next 12 years. To put it simply, in 14 years of building over 1000 skin on frame kayaks I developed better kayak designs, and much faster, easier, and more durable ways to build them. Many of these techniques just make the overall building process much simpler and more enjoyable, but some of these techniques are unique to my kayaks. My modern designs are often built with extreme tensions and unfair lines that, while barely visible in the finished product, are critical to performance.
“Ok, but I’ve built skin on frame boats before.” I get this a lot, so if that’s you, let’s dig a bit deeper here. Let’s say you’re going to clamp a stringer on my F1 design, all you’ve got to do is just measure the heights and clamp right? So you go and try to do that in the logical sequence, but every time you go to push the stringer up for that last clamp in the stern the whole thing snaps flat or blasts sideways off the boat. After about six frustrating tries you make the logical assumption that my measurement must be wrong, so you clamp it on ½ inch lower down, and it works fine and gives better skin to rib clearance which makes sense. Later on you get the boat out on the water and kick it up on edge to see this magic F1 edge-turn for yourself….and nothing happens. Why? It’s because of what you did with that chine. What you were supposed to do is clamp the stringer on with 2 inch metal spring clamps at a downward diagonal angle, starting at rib 11, then 1, then 5, then 15, and THEN you can get that last rib to chine connection to stay put in the stern. It’s simple and not hard, but also not at all intuitive, and not described in any book.
Take what I just wrote and apply it to a hundred other things about the kayak, and you can see right away why the video course makes a huge amount of sense. You get to skip the 15 year learning curve and have more fun building a better kayak faster.