Kevin, by coincidence I've spent the past week working on a Vember Tandem for my son, Christopher, and his wife. The current design iteration is for 20 feet length and 26 inches beam, plus a rudder, with 100 pounds of equipment for camping, but these measurements can be varied independently to suit ...

Stelios at Enjoy-Crete has been busy while building three Vembexes and designing his Nereus, which has more rocker and 2 degrees more V in the bottom than the standard Vember family. The kayaks are used for his wide range of holiday kayaking trips: https://media.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/uploads/4998/...

Pedro, that's not a failure, it's just a learning experience, and we all learn, all the time. You just need a selection of sticks with a range of radii of curvature. I would mock-up a couple of pieces of scrap ply at about the same meeting angle as those two panels, CA glue them at the junction, and...

Big Ade, the essential feature of the Shrike is that she is adaptable to a wide range of the size and preferences of paddlers. Page 8 of the Build Manual states: Vary the design to suit the weight of the paddler and the total planned maximum load. This can be achieved in two ways. First, Low Volume ...

Tugrul is celebrating on launch day in Turkey:

Kieran, welcome to the forum. PDFs have a maximum print size length of 200 inches (5.08 metres). Because the Shrike plans are considerably longer than this, we had to save the plans at 50% scale, and one then has to ask the printer to print at 200% of our downloaded PDF, in order to get back to 100%...

Stuwar has just PM'd me about a change of name and locations for one of the companies that will print the Shrike and Vember plans: " Just to let you know that the previous print company Servicepoint have gone out of business and become Service Graphics. There are two divisions and it’s the local pri...

Andy from Sussex, UK has sent details of his newly completed, and very pretty, Shrike:

I was once dumb enough to see how many continuous rolls I could do in a swimming pool. After about a dozen in half a minute I suddenly felt absolutely awful. I baled out and hung on the side of the pool for a few minutes, until I could crawl to safety. My balance sense had gone. I was taken to see m...

Stuart, one of the main features of the Shrike is that you can choose the height of the topsides, the curve in the foredeck, the size and type of cockpit, and all aspects of the design, apart from the underwater shape of the hull. Plymouthdamo knows plenty about the particular subject. IIRC he has s...

Severe seasickness is an an absolutely appalling sensation. Those who are immune are very lucky. I have suffered on long night passages in sailing yachts, and have lain in the bilges all night, not caring if i lived or died. It can be that serious. I have felt a few seconds of incipient seasickness ...

Stefanos says: I loved the boat, although I have to learn a lot new things. She is fast and steady at the route, has good behaviour in 30-50 cm of waves. https://media.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/uploads/4998/1598187427240-8786.png We made a small daily trip to some islets with my family and the work of...

Ben, one price list for Key Klamp is here: https://www.alvinkeyclamp.co.uk/list/size-7-key-clamps
To save you wasting your time if you consider the cost excessive, a rough calculation puts the cost at about £300 + vat

Ben, I use Key klamp size 7 tube (42.4 dia. o/d). You need to refer to the PDF of fittings, particularly scrolling down to page 2: https://keesafety.co.uk/images/uploads/uk/documents/KEE_KLAMP_FITTINGS.pdf The tube comes in 6.4 metre lengths, but the company will cut to whatever length you wish. I w...

Vertically or horizontally, and what is the beam of the widest kayak you might store? Will it be free standing, or can it be tied into a wall on one side? If so, the narrow end or the long side? My rack takes 12 kayaks, 4 across and 3 high, but the principle would be the same.
Nick.

Ben, welcome to the forum. Tomorrow I'll send some photos or a drawing. How many kayaks do you wish to store?
Nick.

The screw-in hatches we use in Shrike and Vember are light and comparatively easy to fit, but to be watertight: 1. The screw threads should be kept clean of sand. I use a stiff bristle brush for this. 2. The threads in the cover must be initially smeared with silicon grease, as should the rubber sea...

Well done, She's a beauty!
Nick.

A Vember Expedition and a Vember paddling together in the USA:

It would clearly be irresponsible to fire these on November 5th at the height of the local celebrations. Jest sayin', jest sayin.....

I've got photos of all my plywood boats at that stage of the build and they all look like wobbly messes by comparison. They all come together in the end when you add shear clamps and bulkheads etc. That's mainly the difference between building in more flexible 3 mm ply (which you use) as opposed to...

This morning from Lucian,in Romania:
"Vember is my first kayak. Love at first sight."
Now that makes my heart sing.

Received this morning from Brian in Australia, number 262:

Iliya from Bulgaria emailed this morning. He tells us that this is his second Shrike. She's a beauty:

I'd love to be able to build my own Shrike or Vember but I am realistic about my woodworking skills! I know that Selkie and Achtra make Shrikes for sale - does anyone know of anyone who makes Vember for sale? Forgive my ignorance, but I'm also curious about the durability of these boats for expedit...

https://media.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/uploads/4998/1594390886923-4273.png Dear Friend, today I baptised the Shrike. The name I gave her is Joy, because this kayak makes me so happy! Edges perfectly, rolls easily, I can do a sculling brace with no effort. Thank you, Thank you, for the design and the...

A few years ago I flow-coated an entire hull that had serious damage before I repaired it. I flow-coated with the same colour as the original, using a hand foam roller and immediately tipping off with a 3 inch foam brush, one in each hand, and keeping an open wet edge by working very fast. I didn't ...

Here's a link to the story of the Shrike project's origins. The article appeared in in Ocean Paddler magazine 6 years ago, since when the total number of builders who have been kind enough to send us photos and descriptions of their constructions has risen to 259. https://qajaqrolls.com/wp-content/u...