Revisited- At Canoecopia on Saturday, I spent some time speaking with Mark Rogers of Superior. He conducts one-week workshops in Wisconsin for the construction of SOFs. He indicated that at the end of the week, the participant will drive away with a seaworthy boat that may just require more paint and varnish at home.
These boats actually were more enticing than the wooden ones I saw in the CLC booth. As I understand it, you build to your body size.
Does anyone have any experience with Superior and its yaks and/or workshops?
SOF Class
I have no experience with Superior’s class, but I recently attended a similar one (Skinboat School in WA). Very good experience, very good kayak, very interesting. Superior has a good reputation, so you should be pleased. It’s hard to mess it up if you have someone watching over you.
SOF class:
Our group here in Daytona Beach just completed our second SOF project with Turner Wilson. We now have several excellant examples of Greenland artwork completed, and everyone is delighted with the results. They range from dedicated rolling boats to daily use paddlers, as Turner will help you create exactly what you want, to your dimensions. Beyond construction, you will find the course very interesting, as Turner is a great guy to just hang out with, and you will come away from the experience with a great knowledge and understanding of what our Inuit neighbors have done to survive in their harsh environment. He provides all of the materials needed, and I suggest you contact him to see if you can work out the details. Toward the end of the course, he and Sherry conducted a rolling seminar, and that too, is something to experience! He can be reached at; www.kayakway.net
Oh! Oh! I’m a moron.
I can’t answer anything specific about Superior kayaks or the building classes.
BUT- I’m about 1/2 to 2/3 the way through building a Tom Yost style build. I’ve been quite impressed with myself for how it’s gone so far.
http://columbiakayaker.blogspot.com/search/label/paige%20kayak
Good for you- I’m envious but then
again, you must be envious that I’m more of a moron than you.
I’ve heard good things about Yost but with my abilities, the workshop is the way to go initially.
I hope your boat turns out great.
SOF build
A word of caution: Buidling a SOF can be very addicting. If you don’t get it perfect, it’s easy to de-skin and make any necessary changes, then re-skin.
I’m on my fouth build. Each one gets easier and feeds the addiction.
More of a moron?
Wow, we could get into arguments over who is more moronic than the other! My wife would probably venture to guess that I’m the biggest mechanical moron. (smile)
I think the workshops are a great way to go. I’m cheaper than I am lazy (or moronic) and just couldn’t afford a workshop. So, off I went with building.
Listen dsetzer, I don’t want to get in
– Last Updated: Mar-16-09 5:21 PM EST –
a pi--ing contest on P.net as to who is the least qualified but here is a partial list of my achievements:
1. It took four trips to Home Depot for me to replace the bobber and chain on a toilet
2. Three trips to the kayak dealer when I first tried installing a roof rack
3. I almost called in an electrician to help me change a fluorescent bulb in the kitchen (just the bulb; not the fixture)
4. Many of the paintings in our house are crooked because the nail was not hammered in totally straight
5. My wife has to buy wine with a twist top because a corkscrew is challenging
These are but a few examples of why I'm convinced I'm more mechanically inept than you (without even knowing you).
That is also why I need a workshop.
It would cost more if I bought a kit because my wife would move out of the house for the two or three years it took me to construct it so I would be paying rent in addition to mortgage.
Sorry Nate!
My typing sucks!
SOF Workshop
Don’t know too much about Mark other than he designed my Sparrow Hawk. 
I organized a workshop with Turner as instructor last March-April and it was a lot of fun. We built four qajaqs. I have a sequence of photos taken by the participants and Turner on Picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ozardjw/SkinOnFrameQajaqBuildingWorkshopMarch23April62008#
It might give you a feel for what a workshop entails. I probably had the poorest woodwoking skills of any in the class, but my qajaq floats!
Incidently, the qajaq frame in photo # 21, next to Turner’s espresso colored qajaq, was built by Mark Rogers. It’s also show in photo #38 next to a production Anas Acuta.
This was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had
Cheers,
~wetzool
I don’t know of anyone
who has built a SOF with Mark Rogers but I have built one myself and really enjoy it. Paddling a light weight kayak that’s built to your size, with the handling and stability characteristics you want and allows you to have a lower center of gravity makes it hard to beat. If you have the desire and the opportunity to build a SOF I would highly recommend doing it.
All this info is very valuable
– Last Updated: Mar-16-09 9:33 PM EST –
Kheya- I'm glad you can vouch for Mark's reputation.
Wetzool and Belles, those workshop photos were a real treat.
Thanks to all of you who have responded as I try to overcome my phobia.
I was really focused on attending a wooden kit workshop until I saw the SOFs at Canoecopia. I am not an advanced paddler but there was something magnetic about the SOF.
Be careful, Bruce.
Once you build your first SOF, they become
like crack cocaine! I went the Book/Yost/Net studying
route, by pilfering a little of this and a little of that from various open sources.
The end result was a mongrel-amalgamation of a 14’ boat that I dig almost as obsessively as Pam1ico 140 does his fabled plasti-craft. (I hate copying patterns of others, prefering to seek out “my own design.”) And Belles is right: The frames make good artwork even if you screw up. But I found they also BURN on a bonfire really cool too! (As I found out after my first two clueless, unresearched SOF attenpts went badly amiss.)
I’m cheap and really couldn’t afford a workshop.
But wish I went that route originally, to have saved myself alot of grief…Now though, the building more than one boat “addiction” is starting to take hold --Especially when I think of how the original framing of the finally completed yak, took me less than 5 part-time days of very enjoyable work to make. (And the bonus is of course, not shelling out 800-1500 bucks for another boat added to my fleet!)
My only disappointment, was having to use a conventional synthetic skinning method, because I was too lazy to hunt a dozen or so seals.(
Next, I have my sights set on building a baidarka.
Good luck. And workshop or not, GO FOR IT!
no sorries
just trying to help avoid any confusion.
(plus, it’s such a great site! I’d hate for anyone to miss it. Great collection of high-res rolling videos.)
Now I’m going for good plain fun
>1. It took four trips to Home Depot for me to
replace the bobber and chain on a toilet
*** I let my father-in-law take this one on. The toilet scares me.
2. Three trips to the kayak dealer when I first
tried installing a roof rack
*** Ok, you basically win here. BUT- I did my install under the watchful eye of my father-in-law.
3. I almost called in an electrician to help me
change a fluorescent bulb in the kitchen (just the
bulb; not the fixture)
*** Haha… ok, you win. What in the world would have caused this much grief?!
4. Many of the paintings in our house are crooked
because the nail was not hammered in totally straight
*** See #1 and #2 - I haven’t hung a single picture in my house. My past attempts have either ended like yours OR the pictures have since fallen. Again, father-in-law to the rescue.
5. My wife has to buy wine with a twist top because
a corkscrew is challenging
*** Now here I can help - Tupperware has an expensive but really swanky corker remover thingamajig. BUT- we really don’t drink much wine.
Room for one more…
– Last Updated: Mar-17-09 1:23 PM EST –
Nobody mentioned Brian Schulz at Cape Falcon, so I will. I built a boat in Manzanita OR with him a couple of summers ago, and it was big fun. The main boat he is building now, the F-1 is a very capable, medium size SOF touring and surfing boat. It's a real winner - everyone who's tried mine (an SC-1, its precursor) likes it. You can also have a choice of replica East and West Greenland boats, a surf ski or a racing boat. Highly recommended, very affordable:
http://www.capefalconkayak.com
PS the boat and paddle are finished and in the water by the end of the week - nothing to finish up later.
Oops, I see Belles did mention Brian, but I gave the web address :p
I recommend taking a workshop so as to have a finished boat more quickly and the wherewithal to make another on your own.
Cool link- thanks Carldelo
Scroll down the page on the Superior
– Last Updated: Mar-17-09 2:57 PM EST –
link- you can even buy a harpoon. Now wouldn't that be the talk of the neighborhood:
http://www.superiorkayaks.com/superiorkayaks2009_003.htm
I can spear some coho salmon or lake trout in Lake Michigan.