A kayak that weighs less than a toddler? It's a reality, and it's at the forefront of a new wave of small-scale manufacturing taking place around the country.
Industrial designer Andrew Simpson and marketer Ben Cooper wanted to create a boat that paired classic form with modern materials. The result - called the O Six Hundred - is a 10-kilogram, wooden vessel based on Bronze Age Inuit models, designed and built in a Redfern studio.
"It's actually the original kayak," said Mr Cooper, 42, who ventured the idea 18 months ago.
Unlike typical polyethylene kayaks, the frame is made of 9mm-thick marine plywood, with the pieces cut by machine using a process called computer numerical control. But the real innovation is in the kayak's skin. Where the Inuits commonly made theirs from seal skins, Mr Simpson used Kevlar, a strong synthetic fibre also found in bulletproof vests and performance sails.
The two men hope the boat will appeal to recreational kayakers whose vessels often remain garaged because of their unwieldy mass.
"Our mission is to get people on the water in the easiest way possible," Mr Cooper said. "We feel quite confident it's one of the lightest kayaks out there."
Many believe the future of Australian manufacturing relies on such innovation. In October, the federal government presented its National Industry Investment and Competitiveness Agenda, which included $188 million across five new "growth centres". One of those was "advanced manufacturing", where skills, research and technology combine to create high-value bespoke products.
Mr Simpson is optimistic about the sector's prospects, though he said more needs to be done to attract bright students to the industry. He can count 20 studios within a five kilometre radius using technology such as 3D printing to innovate and reduce the costs of testing and production. His own business, Vert Design, is working on prototypes for gin bottles, nicotine dispensers and reading glasses (Mr Simpson 3D-printed his own pair).
"A lot of the capital-intense manufacturing for a single product has failed. What is surviving is batch-manufacturing," he says. In that process, manufacturers only make enough product to cover current orders. They do not have to store inventory and can respond more swiftly to consumer feedback.
The O Six Hundred costs $1490 and comes in a kit - buyers build the kayak themselves. There are four orders so far, with each being designed to specific requirements - but they expect to scale up production based on demand. There is also potential to apply the skin-on-frame model to larger boats, Mr Simpson said, such as the hull of a yacht.
As for more serious kayakers, the men are cautious about using the O Six Hundred on whitewater rapids. But they are confident it could beat out some of the more professional - and expensive - models in a harbour race.
"It depends who's paddling," Mr Simpson said.
