So, ….. This one is about the next boat to build.. Not for a while though, but the way I’m leaning is Tom Yost’s Strip built Sea Ranger. Looks like a relative easy build, and will look great in strips. I plotted out the patterns for the forms, and stacked them together to get an idea of what it would look like. Talk about low volume! So, whatch’all think?
Tony Olsen
This just in from Mark White of Austin Outdoor Gear and Guidance:
First Annual Texas Gulf Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. It’s scheduled for March 31 to April 2 at San Luis Pass, Texas. We’ll have BCU trainings and assessments, paddling clinics, boat demos, and seminars.
Full info can be found here:
Should you know anyone who might be interested please pass this along.
Sounds like an interesting event. I live about 6 miles from there, it is just off the west end of Galveston Island, so will probably be there a day or 2.
See you there! Tony Olsen
My good kayaking buddy and all around good guy, Kurt Maurer just finished this workshop. Kurt also builds fine kayaks out of his “Sawdust Factory.” So, for those of you considering this Certification Workshop, here’s what Kurt had to say: (more…)
I built the hatch flanges, 1 yesterday and 1 today. Annotated pictures here.
I used thickened epoxy as a fillet around the gasket blank so the glass would not have to bend as far and ended up with a nice square shoulder to the gasket channel.
Now, before you think ‘that’s brilliant’ (as I did on my first kayak,)Â I got this idea from Ross Leidy’s kayak building site. so give Ross the credit for this great technique.
That’s it for today.
Tony Olsen
Got the fill coat done on the coaming, starting to look like something now.
After this sets up, I’m flipping the deck over and will be building the flanges for the hatches. This will be a 7 layer layup of 6 ounce glass with a spacer to allow room for the gasket material on final assembly.
Tony Olsen
For all my loyal Swedish visitors, here’s the report from Anders and Magnus N.
I found the link to this on the Kayak Building Bulletin board (trips.) Pretty cool and very nice scenery. Thanks for the pictures!
inte illa!
(hope that means ‘not bad’)
Tony Olsen
After some serious self convincing, I finally mustered up the courage to apply the saber saw (jig saw) to my deck. Today’s photos start here:
I did get a fill coat on the coaming too. All in all a pretty good day and I’m beginnning to see the end to this project.
Take care all,
Tony Olsen
The epoxy is setting up on the coaming (final glassing of riser and riser/coaming join) so I came up to loft the hatches and found my modification to the shear line. Got the hatch patterns lofted and thought I would tell ya’all about modifying the Great Auk.
While Nick Schade designed a fine kayak, I wasn’t too keen on the peaked roof for the deck design. I decided to modify that part of the design to a more rounded and curvier top. I also changed (slightly) the bow and stern. I eased the squared off line of both and also made the angle of entry into the water a bit sharper or more raked back. When the deck was rounded, I needed to lower the shear line so the forms weren’t captured in the hull (no ‘unclusion’.) The picture is my change process. Clicking on it will take you to “flickr” and then you can select all sizes. Selecting original will allow you to see the details.
Tony Olsen
Got to looking at the kayak today and decided that I needed to glass the inside of the riser and the coaming. Got the coaming part done now all is left is the inside of the riser. It was a bit cool for epoxy yesterday, 65 F or about 18 C, so I got the glass and epoxy in place and warmed it with a heat gun. This made the epoxy a bit runny at first but then the ‘kick’ set in and things got firmed up pretty fast. That worked real nice for getting the glass to stay in place while it to finish curing. I cut the glass on a bias so it would go around the sharp angle of the coaming better.
I’m still thinking on the hatches.
Tony Olsen
Sanded and gave the kayak deck another 4 ounces of epoxy today. Came out nice and shiney! Now I’m going to cut hatches… (I’m Scared!) No, not really, but I will spend a lot of time figuring out where to put them before cutting anything.
Tony Olsen
