Back in 2009 Peter Burgess commissioned me to build a Baidarka for him - all out of Huon Pine. It was beautiful. So when he approached me again, this time to build a double Baidarka, I knew there were challenges ahead.......not least of all was how to top my last effort...

Considering Peter's requirement for a light coloured wood led me to want to use Willow for the ribs. I'd had a piece of this bent into a rib shape hanging in the workshop for years, and so here was a chance to see if Willow was viable. A lot of casting about saw a supply less than a kilometre from the workshop.

Research turned up a single page line drawing with a table of off-sets for an Aleut 2-Hole Kayak in the US National Museum in Washington DC. The lines were taken by David Zimmerly in March 1975. So armed with that and my building notes from Smile7, Smile38 was underway.....