Kayak Bytes

This is a little far for me to travel, but any of you in the midwest US may want to check this out!  Sounds like a great time.

Tony

Don Harper Says:
February 28th, 2006 at 9:04 am e

Meet at the Beach
2006 (Midwest)
Home-built kayak/canoe Rendezvous

Saturday June 3 - 10:00AM
Macatawa Beach, Holland State Park
Holland, Michigan

Come and show off your boat and see what other builders are doing. Have a great day of swapping ideas and doing some paddling on Lake Macatawa and out to Lake Michigan.

For those who would like to camp overnight or for the weekend, there are many sites still available in the Woodstock Loop of the Macatawa Camp Ground.

We are planning sunset cruises for both evenings and maybe a “Dawn Patrol” for Saturday morning.

For further information Contact Midwestkayak@aol.com
or Don Harper Prcaspian10th@yahoo.com

Well, it’s starting to look more like a kayak.  Got the seams taped and one fill on them and the cheek/hip plates installed.  My son wanted me to add some wider angle pictures so here ya go!

Good building all..

Tony Olsen

OK, some of you are saying what the heck does this have to do with kayaking?????  Answer:  Absolutely nothing, but, it’s my blog and I can write what I want. Besides, curling is almost over.
The US won it’s first ever medal in curling today, a Bronze.  Edging out Great Britain in the last end where GB had a rock in the house that could tie the match and take it to extra ends,  The US had the hammer and curled the last shot around the gaurd, bumped out the rock and sat proud as you please closest to center.  This ended the match at 8-6.
Oh yeah, there was a Gold- Silver match too.  Canada seemed to have the touch today while Finland was a bit off the mark.  Finland came out and gave Canada the wakeup call in the first end by going ahead 2-0.  In the next end, Canada tied it up at 2-2.  Canada went on to score one in each of the next 2 ends then answered by Finland in the 5th end to make it 3-4.  End 6 became the deciding factor when Canada scored an astounding 6 points!  I believe this to be unheard of in olympic competition.  Now with the score at 3-10, the match continued to the 8th end where Finland scored one more point. Final score 4-10
Way to go Canada!!

Yeah, I like curling!

Tony Olsen

Sweden’s women win gold in Curling. Sweden, in a nail biting extra end edged out Switzerland 7 to 6 by taking out 2 stones in what was a perfect throw. I have actually curled in a Canadian league and can attest that this gold match I just saw was nothing short of spectacular. Skip, Anette Norberg, called the strategy the brought home the gold. Congratulations to team Sweden. More detailed results can be seen here.

Tony Olsen

Well, I got one ouside seam done yesterday, weather is a bit cool so the epoxy is setting kinda slow. Good news is that you can work with it for a long time and don’t feel rushed to get it on before it ‘kicks.’ Will probably do the other side Monday.
As always, you can click on the picture to be tele-ported to the picture gallery, flickr.

Good building all.. Tony

After joining the 2 halves and fairing the seam, I decided it’s time for a weigh-in. To my surprise, the kayak came in at 32 pounds (14.5 kg.) Not bad for a high vol Great Auk. I’m going to have to add 3 to 5 more pounds (1.4 to 2.26 kg) for hatches and rigging and a bit more glass, but the final product should come in under 40 pounds (18.14 kg.)  WHOOOPEEE!

Tony Olsen

Sorry for not posting lately, have had a lot of other stuff going on. I’m putting the 2 halves together today. Yesterday I started by getting the top and bottom aligned and clamped straped and bungee’d in place. Today, while firing the kiln for another un-related project, I am glassing the inside seam. More to follow….

I was just sitting here admiring how well Linux works on my machine and wondered how many of you also use linux and which distro? I ran Red Hat Fedora core 3 for a while and then moved to FC4 and that was not an improvement. Ubuntu came out with the best (so far) in a “turn key” operating system and I am using the “Breezey Badger” release. Like it a lot, and any support I need I get from my son, Anton Olsen.

I would guess that most of you Swedes would be using this as Linus Torvalds, a “Finlandssvensk”, or Finlandssvenskar” Concieved of, and started this whole OS.
So, you using Linux? tried it? Like it? Hit that comment button at the bottom and let me know!

Tony Olsen

So, when you need your parts in a hurry, be sure to call Midwest Kayak, They put the stuff on the truck in a hurry!  I also got some minicell for the seat and backrest there.
Here’s the pictures of today’s progress, be sure to hover over the pictures for explanations.

Tony Olsen

one hatch flange done and one in glue up. You can never have too many clamps no matter what your wife says. The flanges are looking pretty good, just need to sand off some of the bumps and give them a very thin coat of epoxy. I’m about ready to join the 2 halves, but need the studs for the foot braces first. That item slipped my mind for a while, but they are on order now and should get here today or tomorrow.