December 2024: Still available. Price now $19,900.
The Kodiak Cruisers were designed to be relatively economical to build in steel or aluminum at small independent metal shops using minimal heavy equipment. The anticipation was that many of them would be owner-completed beyond the metal shell.
The hulls of these tough cruisers were conically developed and so could be plated with sheet material without resort to plate rolling equipment. They were engineered to be rugged and durable and to provide maximized cruising accommodations for their otherwise relatively diminutive dimensions, and all were designed with a turtle back main deck forward of their pilothouses. The gains in usable interior volume — not to mention strength and overall structural rigidity — over trunk cabin configuration were significant.
Masts were engineered to be built of schedule 40 6061-T6 aluminum pipe which was in those days about 1/4 of the cost of a mast extrusion. . . .
The original rig provided for a single fully-battened, self-stowing sail in the manner of Blondie Hasler’s “Jester” .... [S]ometime during the following ten years, someone approached me for help rigging one as a two-masted schooner, Chinese style. And as I vaguely recall, I believe I responded by supplying details for a style of rig that had been developed by designer and boatbuilder Tom Colvin in Virginia.