Shearwater

Product Description

Lightweight sleek Greenland style sea kayaks provide telepathic handling to the skilled paddler, while initial and secondary stability are ample for the newly initiated.

The Shearwater is an eye-catching, light and fast cruiser that does many things well. It is a strong contender for the budget-minded paddler looking to answer the ‘if I could only have one kayak’ question.

Sea Kayaker Oct 2006.

On the water, the Shearwater demonstrates excellent poise and responsiveness in a broad range of conditions, edging turns easily when leaned but tracking straight when pushed hard in surf. A cutaway bow and skeg-like stern ensures tracking even in extremely rough water. The relatively low profile means you'll spend less time on corrective strokes and more time covering ground.

A complex specification was drawn up for a line of boats that combined speed and handling with roomy cockpits and easy construction. For this very challenging design brief, Harris selected veteran paddler and kayak designer Eric Schade. “I had paddled Eric's Merganser design about five years ago and it had many of the qualities we wanted: a good-looking West Greenland-style hull with great tracking and steering.” Harris wanted a distinctive and attractive deck design, however, and over the winter several prototypes were built testing different approaches. The final deck scheme is functional, elegant, easy to assemble, and unique.

Striking and innovative, the Shearwater's deck retains the gentle camber but the sheer panel of the hull is raked inward to reduce windage and increase paddle clearance. The sweeping sheerline complements the nicely balanced ends; there isn't an awkward hump or a bump anywhere. On the water, the Shearwater demonstrates excellent poise and responsiveness in a broad range of conditions, edging turns easily when leaned but tracking straight when pushed hard in surfing conditions. The relatively low profile means you'll spend less time on corrective strokes and more time covering ground.

The Shearwater design abounds in interesting and innovative features. To emphasise the clean lines, the decks are computer cut from sapele plywood, a beautiful mahogany with a reddish-brown swirling grain, to contrast with the honey-coloured okoume sides and bottoms. Flush hatches are standard. Veteran stitch-and-glue builders will find notable tweaks in the Shearwater kits, including CNC-cut ‘puzzle joints’ instead of the more typical scarf joints. The finger joints eliminate the alignment step required of scarf joints, so parts are quicker to assemble and impossible to misalign. Another luxury in the Shearwater kits is that 99% of the holes for the wire stitches have been drilled for you. This means faster assembly and no measuring for bulkhead locations, as those holes are drilled, too.

A Cedar strip decked hybrid Shearwater is also available.

Shearwater 14

This is for the smaller and lighter paddler.

Shearwater 17

The 17 foot version is by far the most popular and the one that best suits the average adult.

Shearwater Sport

This is for those who want a greater load carrying capacity than the Shearwater 14 but do not have the space for a 17. It fills the gap between the high performance Shearwaters and the beamy, comfortable, Wood Duck series. It has a larger cockpit than the other Shearwaters, for those with longer legs. It offers the perfect compromise of light weight, sharp West Greenland handling, effortless cruising speed and an extra-large cockpit for comfort.

Shearwater Double

The Shearwater Double will take two average adults.

The kits include:

Pre-cut wooden panels with pre-cut joints and pre-drilled tie holes
Epoxy resin
Epoxy activator
Epoxy fillers
Woven glass fabric
Woven glass tape
Ties
Luxury moulded foam tractor seat
Padded foam back band
Deck Rigging
Adjustable Footbraces
Comprehensive building manual
Free technical support from a competent builder

What is in a boat kit.

Plans and Manual (Not required by kit purchasers)

These plans and manual contain sufficient information on the cutting of the panels to make it possible to build the boat from scratch rather than a kit. The plans include full sized templates.

Wood Only

This option contains the solid wood and plywood components pre-cut to the correct size with pre-cut joints, plus the construction manual. It does not contain the plans (these are not required because the wood is pre-cut), any of the epoxy to glue and coat the boat, the fabric or tape nor any of the hardware or rigging.