Build a better kayak than you can buy
On our 8-day course you can build your own kayak. It’s easier than it might sound. The course includes materials, access to the tools you need, supervision and food and refreshments. The only thing you need to add yourself is time, somewhere to sleep and painting your finished kayak.
Our course week looks like this
The course begins on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. with coffee and a review of the construction manual. On the first day, frame templates are set up and by the evening you can see that it will be a kayak!
Then you work on assembling the parts and laminating with fiberglass and epoxy. The days are of different lengths and this is because you have to get to certain points in the manual in order to finish the construction during the course week.
If you choose to stay in our B&B, breakfast is served at 8.30. We eat coffee, dinner and supper together in our fine workshop kitchen.
After the end of the course, the kayak must harden for a week before being sanded and varnished.
The Kayaks we build
We build kayaks according to the stitch-and-glue concept, which means that finished plywood panels are “stitched” together to form the hull and deck, after which the inside and outside are laminated with fiberglass and epoxy. The result is a light and strong kayak in roughly half the time compared to a strip build.
The kayaks we build are designed by Björn Thomasson – a living legend in boat building and paddling.
If you have difficulty knowing which model would suit you, we will be happy to help you, so please get in touch!
Alleq is a kayak that Björn Thomasson designed for us. It has a more angular appearance than Björns Nanoq and more closely resembles the original Illorsuit which is a legendary kayak built in West Greenland sometime in the 1950s. Read more about these kayak models on Björn Thomasson’s website.
In a collaboration between Björn, who is a designer, and Dan Caouette, who is a kayak builder and good at drawing in CAD programs, we have developed the Alleq 52 and Alleq 55.
As the name suggests, the Alleq 52 is 520 cm long. The width is 51 cm and it has a fairly low front deck, just like most kayaks inspired by Greenland kayaks. The Alleq 55 is slightly larger – 546 cm long and 52 cm wide. It also has a slightly higher deck.
Construction kit base
This kit includes panels, milled out of gaboon plywood and bending plywood, framing templates, cockpit skirting made of plywood, drawings and a simple construction description.
Price: 4900 Sek
Complete kit
Details such as Base but also hatches, cockpit ring in carbon/fiberglass, fiberglass fabric, epoxy, Kajaksport click-on hatches, skeg from Kajaksport and footrests from Smart-track.
Price: SEK 15300
Building course and Complete sats
Place in the workshop, supervision, tools and machines needed for construction, morning and afternoon coffee and lunch 8 days. The course is quite intensive but not a baptism of fire.
Price: SEK 23500
Varnishing
After the end of the construction course, there remains sanding, leveling with epoxy and varnishing/painting. This service can be purchased in addition and costs:
1 color + clear coat 8500 Sek
2 colors + clear coat 9000 Sek
Custom built by us
Alleq can also be bought ready-made in any color. Price SEK 39500
Black Pearl is the first kayak that we started building in plywood according to the construction method “stitch & glue”.
This is how designer Björn Thomassons himself describes the Black Pearl kayak:
“Black Pearl is a long, low and very narrow kayak, of the East Greenlandic type. It is extremely easy to maneuver and reacts directly to minimal center of gravity shifts, tilts, etc. and has sufficient final stiffness to be able to spin around on a high support. It is very easy to roll. Black Pearl is initial rank but has a final stiffness that means you get used to it relatively quickly”.
Read more about Black Pearl on Björn Thomasson’s fantastic website.
Together with Björn Thomasson and Dan Caouette in Maine, we have designed/developed six plywood versions of the Black Pearl, from 351 cm to 559 cm.
Building kit Base
This kit includes panels milled out of gaboon plywood and bending plywood, framing templates, cockpit skirting made of plywood, drawings and a simple construction description.
Price: 4900 Sek
Building kit complete
Details such as Base but also hatch recesses, cockpit skirt, seat cast in carbon/fiberglass, hatches from RWO, fiberglass fabric, epoxy and spoon from Kayaksport.
Price: SEK 15300
Building course & materialset complete
Place in the workshop, supervision, tools and machines needed for construction, morning and afternoon coffee and lunch 8 days. The course is quite intensive but not a baptism of fire.
Price: SEK 23500
Varnishing
After the end of the construction course, there remains sanding, leveling with epoxy and varnishing/painting. This service can be purchased in addition and costs:
1 color + clear coat 8500 Sek
2 colors + clear coat 9000 Sek
Custom made, build for you by us
Black Pearl can also be purchased fully built and painted in any color.
Price: from SEK 39500
Frej is our most commonly built plywood kayak. It is cut out with cnc technology, which enables precise joints with a puzzle piece design, and is therefore good for sending as a construction kit to your door. If you want more guidance, help with building space, machines and a nice week in our workshop, you can come to Tranås and build your kayak here.
The kayak is built with a core of plywood and with fiberglass fabric and epoxy on the outside and inside. Frej is 510 cm long and 54 cm wide and you can choose a cockpit between 60 and 80 cm. It is intended to be fitted with hatches and watertight bulkheads and should be fitted with an adjustable scoop. Frej can also be built 480 or 535, depending on your weight, length and what you intend to use the kayak for. Feel free to consult with us.
Frej is a new but proven kayak. It has been built in wood strip for a few years and in 2015 it came as a fiberglass kayak made by Struerboats in Denmark and now Dan Caouette at Clear Stream Custom Water Craft has converted it to be made in Plywood using the ‘stitch & glue”.
On Björn Thomassons homepage there is a lot of information about Frej´s characteristics, the designer’s thoughts and history about the Frej kayak.
Building kit base
This kit includes panels milled out of gaboon plywood and bending plywood, framing templates, cockpit skirting made of plywood, drawings and a simple construction description.
Price: SEK 4900
Complete kit
Details such as Base but also hatch recesses, cockpit surround, seat cast in carbon/fiberglass, fiberglass fabric, epoxy, click-on hatches from Kayaksport, spoons from Kayaksport and footrests from Smart Track.
Price: SEK 15300
Building course and complete building kit
Place in the workshop, supervision, tools and machines needed for construction, morning and afternoon coffee and lunch 8 days. The course is quite intensive but not a baptism of fire.
Price: SEK 23500
Varnishing
After the end of the construction course, there remains sanding, leveling with epoxy and varnishing/painting. This service can be purchased in addition and costs: 1 color + clear coat SEK 8500, 2 colors + clear coat SEK 9000
Custom made for you by us
Frej can also be bought fully built and painted in any color.
Price: from SEK 39500
This is how the designer Björn Thomassons himself describes the kayak Panthera:
“Panthera is a new hybrid kayak – simply put, a surf ski with a kayak deck. But of course it’s not really that simple. Although the hull shape is basically a Spindrift, there is a not insignificant influence from Njord. I therefore expect the kayak to be slightly calmer than a pure surf ski, but that it is still controllable if you should be hit by an urgent desire to diagonally surf in rough seas. I also expect that on surfboards you can maintain a higher speed in the sea precisely because of the surfing properties.
Basically, the Panthera is so close to the surfski ideal that a rudder is necessary to take full advantage of the potential. An underlying surf ski rudder is of course best, for the precision of the steering, but with a little sea kayak in the concept, it also works well with an aft rudder. With a long-distance load, the kayak lies a little deeper in the water and thus with a little more course stability, which gives a more relaxed paddling over long distances throughout the day.”
Building kit Base
This kit includes panels milled out of gaboon plywood and bending plywood, framing templates, cockpit skirting made of plywood, drawings and a simple construction description.
Price: SEK 4900
Building kit Complete
Details such as Base but also hatch recesses, cockpit skirting, seat cast in carbon/fiberglass, fiberglass fabric, epoxy, hatches, scoops from Kayaksport as well as rudder and footrests from Smart Track.
Price: SEK 17300
Construction course material set complete
Place in the workshop, supervision, tools and machines needed for construction, morning and afternoon coffee and lunch 8 days. The course is quite intensive but not a baptism of fire.
Price: SEK 25000
Varnishing
After the end of the construction course, there remains sanding, leveling with epoxy and varnishing/painting. This service can be purchased in addition and costs:
1 color + clear coat 8500 Sek
2 colors + clear coat 9000 Sek
After a lot of work on the keys, we were able to start the cnc milling machine and out came the Black River 500. It got its name from
Svartån, the river that flows here through Tranås.
Thanks to Kalle, we can now show the first pictures of a Canadian in plywood composite. If you are interested in a self-built Canadian, it is on the way. Our hope is that it will go well to build this canoe on our 8-day course, it will of course also be possible to buy as a kit for those who prefer to build themselves in the garage. Railings will be made of mahogany and there will be a small deck in the fore and aft but the possibility of a watertight storage space.
Building kits Material, plywood Gaboon 4mm for hull cnc-milled parts, frame templates of 9 mm pine plywood and assembly drawing.
Price: SEK 4300 plus any shipping.
Said about our courses
We came back and built a third Black Pearl!
2010 we had been married for 10 years and celebrated this by going to Tranås and building each our own Black Pearl, size small. We hoped that eventually they would become manageable for our daughters, then 11, 8, and 6 years old. Our hopes were met with flying colors and since we have three daughters, one pearl was missing. There was another Easter break in Tranås in 2011 when we built a pearl in size X-small. By taking an 8-day course with Petrus, the construction becomes very manageable in time! Petrus know-how, the availability of tools and all materials make the whole thing unbeatable.
It is a holistic experience
Thanks for another great week of building classes! A year ago I built my first kayak with you, and I couldn’t resist building another one with you! Being with you on a building course is so much more than “getting” a kayak home. It is a holistic experience. With family warmth, humor, craftsmanship, good food! Positivity that is contagious, security and credibility. Thanks!
Do you want to build a kayak on a course with us?
The kayak building courses are a winter activity that runs between September and May.
Kayak Building courses, spring 2026
4-12 April, 2 places left
Kayak Building courses, autumn 2026
10-17 October, 3 places left
24-31 October, 4 places left
14-21 November, 4 places left
5-12 December, 4 places left
New Year Course, 27 December – 3 January 2027,
4 places left
If you have requests for other dates, it can often be arranged. Just get in touch with us.
Material for you who build your own kayak at home
For those of you who build a kayak in your own workshop, there is a lot of material to buy from us. We manufacture cockpit skirts, seats, hatch recesses, “tub” for dayhatch and bucket systems. For price information call +46 70 227 11 71
Questions and answers
This is a question we often get asked, and believe it or not, it’s easier than many people imagine! As a rule, there are two qualities that are essential to building your own kayak: good patience, and a certain accuracy. Otherwise, it is actually enough to be able to follow instructions.
Our ambition is to ensure that as many people as possible can have the experience of paddling their self-made kayak! To take a course with us, you don’t really need any previous experience or knowledge in carpentry, we provide tools and guidance for everyone, even those who may never have been in a workshop before. We have been course leaders for 15 years and so far ALL course participants have taken home a kayak that maintains a high quality.
Building a kayak involves many different stages and everyone has different skills, experience and knowledge from before. Some are basically very handy, others have good experience in handling machines and tools and some are pure natural talents at laminating. But we are all children at the beginning, therefore we are there as course leaders for you and we help you with what is needed.
It obviously makes the building process easier if you have previously used screwdrivers, rollers, grinders, knives of various kinds, chisels, sickles, etc., but it is absolutely not a requirement.
The price depends partly on the choice of model, and whether you choose to do things like final painting yourself or not. You will find prices under each kayak model in the section The kayaks we build.
