Directions to the Shop
Directions to the workshop on the former Alameda Naval Air Station (NAS)

Directions to Encinal Boat Ramp
Directions to the Encinal Boat Ramp in Alameda.

Paddles
Custom Greenland and Aleut style kayak paddles and single blade Bering Sea paddles.

Boat Building Classes
Learn how to build a skin on frame kayak, canoe or curragh.

Sponsor a Boat Building Class
Don't want to travel to Alameda to build a boat? Sponsor a class in your town and we will come to you.

Boat Restoration and Repair
Have your old kayak or canoe restored.

Boat Completion
Has your or your partner's uncompleted boat project sat in the garage for more than a year? Give us a call and we'll help you finish it.

Books

The book has been out of print for some time but is still selling briskly on the used market. I have been promising to publish an updated edition for some time but until that new addition appears, here are NOTES on some changes that I might make to the first edition. So if you have gotten a hold of a first edition, check out the notes.

I am also putting bare minimum stripped down INSTRUCTIONS for building the boat online right here at this site. The information will be sufficient for you to build a baidarka, but it will not have any of the history, cultural information, musings on existential matters, tool suggestions, lumber buying hints and so on that you will get in the printed book. The release of this material will be serialized, that is, I will publish it here online in sequence as I finish the writing. The introduction and some of the other material is already available. Check it out.

Classes

We offer classes in traditional as well as non-traditional skin on frame boat building.

Click here for class schedules.

Here's a partial list of boats you can build.

• West Greenland single
• East Greenland single
• Aleut baidarka single
• Aleut baidarka double
• Skin on frame canoe
• Recovery kayak/Playboat
• King Island and other Bering Strait Kayaks
• Pt Hope Kayak
• Polynesian Outrigger Canoe
• Umiaq (traditional open skin boat)

To find out more about these boats, visit our design pages.

Paddle Making Classes

Carve your own paddle to fit your body, your hands and your boat.

Custom Paddles

Do you have a hankering for a custom kayak paddle made exactly to your specifications? Check out our list of paddles ,Greenland, Aleut, King Island, you name it. Paddle sizes listed on this page are suggestions only. You can have them any size you want.

Contact

Boat Building News
News from the shop and around the boat building world.

NEW - now at blogspot.com
Boat Building Blog
Random thoughs on the topic of boat building.

Blog Archive
Archive of blogs that pre-date the switch to blogspot.com.

Boatbuilding Tales
Profiles of skin on frame boat types and paddles to come out of our shop.

• A King Island replica A short baidarka
• A canoe
• A playboat
• A Greenland trio
• A bent shaft paddle
• Building baidarkas in the Aleutians
• Overhauling a baidarka
• Boat weights

Boat Building Info
Skin on Frame Boatbuilding illustrated. Greenland kayaks, baidarkas, boatbuilding in Akutan, boatbuilding in Cold Bay, Rib technology, Frame joinery illustrated.

Baidarka Lore
Baidarka building in the Aleutians, Ivan Veniaminov, kayaking missionary.

How-to tips on paddling
Rolling videos, cold water survival and more.

Wood Lore
Info and lore of the use of wood in boat building.

Bibliography
A list of books about canoes and kayaks.

Glossary
A list of small boat terms.

About
Wolfgang Brinck's boat building bio.

The Mission
A brief statement of what we're all about.