CNC Kayaks

CNC Kayaks is a non-profit organisation supplying free plans to build sea kayaks. The kayak designs are derived from the kayaks of West Greenland, and, in particular, the Disko Bay kayak preserved in the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa.

We at CNC kayaks aim to design beautiful and lightweight wooden sea kayaks for construction by those with limited tools, time, facilities and experience of woodworking. The designs are adaptable to your requirements for hull size and cockpit dimensions.

We offer free full-size plans for our two distinct families of sea kayak design, from specialist rolling craft to expedition kayaks. The Shrike family is stitch-and- glue, and the Vember family is wood-strip. For comprehensive details, Build Manuals and plans download, click on the images below.

The Shrike
The Vember
So responsive to every command and correction
– I love this boat.
Paul Krysik

If I had to pick just one boat, this would be it
– the expedition version of Vember.
Damian Walker

In the Press

Since we launched the project in 2014, several articles have been published. The following links are to articles that may be of interest to you:

  1. An article about the origins of the project, published in Ocean Paddler magazine issue 41
  2. An article about the Vember in the Irish Sea Kayaking Association Magazine:
  3. An article by Paul Krysik who built an early Shrike, published in the Portsmouth canoe club magazine
  4. Another article by Paul Krysik on paddling his Shrike
  5. An article about the Shrike in the Irish Sea Kayaking Association Magazine
  6. A blog post from the weehbsite of enjoy-crete.com