Kayak

For Wallpaper* 2013 Handmade we were invited to design an unfamiliar object and we choose a kayak; we had no experience of designing anything like it and were inspired by the unusual challenge. Like aeroplane wings, boat hulls often have an intrinsic beauty where form truly follows function.

The kayak was made by Sekani which is run by an Anglo-Polish family living in the Algarve, Portugal. The hull is wood composite – 5mm thick cedar strips formed over a skeleton of the hull shape and then encased on both sides with GRP. The result is both extremely resilient and light: the complete kayak is 5.6m long and weighs 12kg.