I first posted the free plans fo Ganymede, from my series of simple kayaks I call the "Jupiter Point Series" the second boat is "Io" and its for kids. Named after another moon of Jupiter this boat is designed for children to paddle as an especially cool pool toy.
About Io
A very simple design cut from one piece of plywood that can be built in a couple weekends. This design is intended for kids up to about 80 pounds [36 kg] and, if my nephew is any indication, they seem to have a lot of fun with. It is comprised of 3 panels for the hull and 3 for the deck plus a few pieces to laminate into a coaming. I built the prototype in a weekend.
About the Free Plans
I've put together a Free PDF of the plans with all the dimensions for the plywood parts so you can draw out the pieces full size on a large sheet of paper and then transfer the lines from the paper to your sheet of plywood. I wrote up a construction blog of Io for Make Magazine. The instructions for Io and Ganymede are available for free at Instructables.com.
Click on the link below to download the plans:
If all that drawing is too much for you, you can also purchase the plans all drawn out at full size.
A Note About Safety:
Going out onto the water in a small boat is risky. Even experienced boaters die due to simple mistakes when they venture away from shore. This kayak is for kids to have fun paddling under close adult supervision, yet bad stuff can happen even when you are watching. If you build this boat and let a young child use it, you need to understand that it is not "SAFE". Water can drown, wood can hit hard, sharp edges can cut. Be careful making and using this boat.
Io Offsets by Guillemot Kayaks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.guillemot-kayaks.com.
