Nearly six years in the making, Tom Santor's kayak takes to the water near his lakefront home. Carol Santoro

Nearly six years in the making, Tom Santoro's kayak takes to the water near his lakefront home.

Tom Santoro and has wife Carol had a cottage on Blind Lake, one of seven lakes on a chain of lakes in Michigan’s 11,000-acre Pinckney Recreation area, 60 miles west of Detroit. After Tom retired, they rebuilt the cottage as their year-round home. Tom had always enjoyed working with wood, and carved decoys, built wooden model ships and planes, and did simple furniture projects. In 2006, his daughter Amy gave him a copy of Kayaks You Can Build: An Illustrated Guide to Plywood Construction, by Ted Moores and Greg Rössel. It piqued his interest in building something on a larger scale and that he could paddle on Blind Lake.
The cockpit has a custom-fit closed-cell foam seat and sculpted thigh braces. Tom Santoro

The cockpit has a custom-fit closed-cell foam seat and sculpted thigh braces.

Read this article now for Free!

Ready for a second free article? Create a free account by entering your email address and a password below.

— OR —

Subscribe now for $29.99 a year and have immediate access to all of our content, including hundreds of small-boat profiles, gear reviews and techniques, adventure stories, and more! You can also browse our entire archive of back issues starting from September 2014, as well as post unlimited classified ads. This is an extraordinary value!

Subscribe Now or SIGN IN