The Vember kayaks

Our Shrike kayaks, with their hard chined hulls of West Greenland origins, have been a remarkable world-wide success, but the Vember family is for those who desire kayaks which are more “British-style”. In particular, kayaks with round bilge hulls to give smooth and progressive stability from upright to edged; kayaks that would be capable and reassuring in rough seas and strong winds. The members of the Vember family (Vember and Vember Expedition) have proven to satisfy those requirements.

We’ve long been interested in strip-building round-bilged sea kayaks, but had been put off by the many hours this seemed to require, in comparison with the 100 hours to complete a stitch-and-glue Shrike. To reduce the construction time, the Vember family kayaks combine a strip-built hull with the simple, light-weight and quick deck construction used in the Shrike family, and a first-time strip builder might take 150 hours. Visit the Photo Gallery to see some of the kayaks completed world-wide.

Start building today with free plans

Plans and build manuals for both kayak designs are available for free download

Download Vember Plans

I designed Vember to be my ultimate sea kayak. She is the result of years of dreaming, and 18 months of designing, building and testing. On her first paddle I knew she was as perfect as I could make her. She has a smooth range of stability, she tracks beautifully in windy conditions, she handles well in rough water, and is half the weight of my regular fibreglass sea kayak.. She didn’t stay my personal kayak for very long. My wife and experienced paddling friends have enthused over Vember’s handling and light weight, so we have decided to release the plans of the Vember family to the world.

Nick Crowhurst

If I had to pick just one boat, this would be it. Even empty and in a cross-wind, she behaves herself and I’ve yet to really need the skeg. She’s light enough to throw on the roof-rack for an afternoon’s playing, but has the capacity to take a fairly hefty load for trips. The shallow rounded keel allows you to layback fully and this means I’ve been able to hand roll her – a trick I can normally only do in my specialist rolling boat.
She attracts a lot of attention. Every time I’ve taken her out, without fail, I’ve been approached by people who have been seduced by the curves and want to know what she is.

Damian Walker

Vember

Our Shrike kayaks, with their West Greenland origins, have been a remarkable world-wide success, but Vember is for those who desire a lightweight day-tripping kayak which is more “British-style”. In particular, a kayak with a round bilge hull to give smooth and progressive stability from upright to edged; a kayak that would be capable and reassuring in rough seas and strong winds. Vember has proven to satisfy those requirements.

I’ve long been interested in strip-building a round-bilged sea kayak, but had been put off by the many hours this seemed to require, in comparison with the 100 hours to complete a stitch-and-glue Shrike. To reduce the construction time, Vember combines a strip-built hull with the simple, light-weight and quick deck construction used in the Shrike family, and a first-time strip builder might take 150 hours.

Dimensions

Length	4.86 m (15.94 feet)
Beam	0.546 m (21.5 inches)
Weight	15.9 kg (35 pounds)
Approximate time to build	150 hours

The plans and build manual can be downloaded below at no cost .

Vember Expedition

In order to give greater carrying capacity and maximum speed than Vember, the Vember Expedition extends the length by 10% to 5.35m (17.53 feet), while maintaining the same beam and stability characteristics. The construction follows the Vember Build Manual, but with the transverse temporary forms spaced at 330mm rather than 300mm.

Dimensions

Length	5.346 m (17.53 feet)
Beam	0.546 m (21.5 inches)
Weight	17.2 kg (38 pounds)
Approximate time to build	150 hours

The plans and build manual can be downloaded below at no cost .

Build Manual and Template Downloads

The build manuals are provided as PDF formatted documents. The Vember Build Manual covers all the aspects of the build, and is relevant to the Vember and Vember Expedition. The Build Option documents contain information on the differences in the design and build methods that were used to build each Vember design. The manuals also contain builders tips and frequently asked questions. You will need a PDF reader installed to be able to view the manuals, we recommend the Adobe® Reader. The templates are provided in DWG, DXF, DWF, DWFx and PDF formats which will allow you to use either your own plotter or a local professional print shop to print them for you. All the files are zipped into a single compressed archive.

Download Vember Plans (Version 8)

Printing the plans

The download contains several options for printing plans, ranging from the use of home A4/Letter printers through A0 and A1 plotters to continuous roll plotters. The continuous roll plans are designed to be printed on a 841mm or wider continuous roll plotter. Due to a limitation in the PDF specification the PDF is saved at 25% scale. Please ensure you print the pdf scaled to 400% to get the full size templates. The DWF and DWFx templates are all plotted at 100% scale. On the templates there are horizontal and vertical scales measuring 50cm (500mm). These are there to allow you to verify that your print is accurate and there is no scaling error. If these lines are not 50cm long then work with your plotter to set the scale correctly. Do not build from templates that were not printed correctly.

Original CAD files

The Vember templates were drawn using QCad®. The original DWG and DXF CAD files are included in the above download. These can be used if you are interested in enhancing the design or using these files to control a CNC cutter to produce the panels. This may be especially useful should you which to create kits for the hull for commercial distribution.