Design
17' 8" Orion
Designed by Hans Friedel
A 17 ft 8 in Greenland-style kayak by Hans Friedel, offered by Newfound Woodworks as a hybrid kit only, with a stitch and glue plywood hull and a cedar-strip deck. It is 21 in wide and about 45 lb, fairly low in volume with a lot of rocker and a very shallow V bottom, which makes it notably maneuverable. Newfound suggests it for paddlers of around 180 to 290 lb including gear.
Hull panels in 4 mm okoume come pre-drilled with key-lock joints; the builder strips the deck over temporary forms. No plans-only option is sold. As a rule of thumb, budget 130 to 210 hours. The medians below come from builders who logged this boat here.
What building a 17' 8" Orion 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 17' 8" Orion here yet.
If you are building one, yours becomes the reference: the page the next person building this boat finds when they search for it. One photo and one line is a valid first entry.
Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
Same type, closest in length.
| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alenu 540 | Modern Wooden Boat | 5.4 m (17′ 9″) | 0 |
| Ondina | BCA Demco | 5.4 m (17′ 9″) | 0 |
| Freedom 17-9 | Steve Killing | 17′ 9″ (5.41 m) | 0 |
| Naiade | BCA Demco | 5.35 m (17′ 7″) | 0 |
| Coho | Pygmy Boats | 17′ 6″ (5.33 m) | 0 |
| Grand Diva Kayak | B&B Yacht Designs | 17′ 6″ (5.33 m) | 0 |