Design
15' 11" Explorer
Designed by Hans Friedel
A 15 ft 11 in hard-chine touring kayak by Hans Friedel, a slightly shorter and narrower sister to the Navigator, sold by Newfound Woodworks in kit form only. It comes either as an all-plywood stitch and glue kayak or as a hybrid with a stitch and glue hull and a cedar-strip deck. Finished weight is 35 to 42 lb on a 21-5/8 in beam, sized for 130 to 175 lb paddlers with gear or up to 225 lb for day trips.
The 4 mm okoume panels arrive pre-drilled with key-lock butt joints, and no plans-only option is offered. As a rule of thumb, budget 80 to 120 hours for the stitch and glue version and 120 to 200 for the hybrid. Real hours from logged builds are below.
What building a 15' 11" Explorer actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate. Nobody has logged this boat here yet, so they are empty until the first builder does.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Nobody has logged a 15' 11" Explorer here yet.
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Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
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| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16' Chestnut Kruger | Newfound Woodworks | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |
| Columbia Star | White Salmon Boat Works | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |
| Guillemot "S" | Chesapeake Light Craft | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |
| Petrel Sport SG | Chesapeake Light Craft | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |
| SnowShoe 16 | Geodesic Airolite Boats | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |
| Stripper | Glen-L Marine | 16′ 0″ (4.88 m) | 0 |