Kayak Bytes

I had a test sit in the cockpit this afternoon. It’ll fit nicely. Frame 3 will work perfectly as a foot rest and I have just enough room in frame 4 for my calves to slip through. The 2′ 8″ cockpit is definitely not too large. I’ll just be able to slip my knees out and straddle the kayak in shallow water to exit.

I’ve now got the gunwales, keel, and chines glued up and drying. I’ll sand on the seat some more tomorrow and figure out how to secure the boards to the aluminum angles. I’m quite confident now that I’ll be able ready to paddle when Tony visits Thursday. If it’s not too windy we can head up to Canyon Lake, otherwise the Guadalupe River is close and somewhat calm through town.

I carved the seat and back rest today, also glued the backrest to the back bulkhead and am pretty happy with how it came out. See picture below. Also in the works today was final shaping of the front hatch flange and epoxying it into place. You can click through on the picture below to see that. Tomorrow I will take all the bungees off and shape the outside of the shear area. Then apply some FG cloth that has been cut on a bias. Somewhere in there, I’m gonna mow the lawn too… Yuuckkk!
Later..
Tony Olsen

I mixed up a batch of epoxy, cabosil and wood flour and put the resulting paste on all the edges that meet. Not too bad of an experience except for the mosquitoes biting. Sure is a distraction. But, swatting and epoxying, and strapping the boat together with bungees didn’t go too bad. I think I’m going to let this set all day tomorrow just to insure that it is completely cured. I still have the seat and backrest to build, shaping the front hatch lip, drill some holes for rigging, make a paddle park, and put the toggles in for the back hatch so I can stay busy doing other things. Here’s a picture looking aft through the back hatch / backrest. As usual, you can click on it for more pictures.

Good building all!

Tony Olsen

I got a great start on my kayak today. Hannah’s still needs a little work but I figured I could do it while the glue is drying on mine.

I wanted something to handle my current weight and maybe a little gear. After talking with a lot of people and looking at all the designs on Tom Yost’s site I settled on the Sea Tour 17R hull since it displaces at least 300 lbs. I modified the deck to take on the same shape as the Sea Rider to match the deck on Hannah’s kayak. I’m adding one more stringer 3/4″ down from the gunwale to reduce the span between the chine and gunwale and stiffen the frame up a little.

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I got the coaming epoxied to the riser, sanded, and sealed.  Ready for glass which should happen tomorrow.  Also on the completed list is the hatch flange built, but needs sanding and a bit of filling in of some voids prior to installing in the hatch hole.  I built the hatch small since this will not be a kayak for touring, but for short day trips and exercise.  The smaller hatch is easier to keep water tight.  The front bulkhead has been final fit but needs to be glassed in place in the hull (easier now than when the two halves are joined.)  After the join, I can seal and glass the deck to bulkhead area.  Here’s a picture of the coaming, not as perfect as I would have liked, but the little faults are only visible to me and a few discerning observers.  As usual, click on the picture for more if you like.

P.S.  A big Thank You to all 200 of you that visited yesterday, that was the most visitors in one day so far!

Tony

I carved up a Greenland paddle for Hannah last night. I’m pretty sure the wood is redwood but it’s salvaged from the fence row so I can’t say for certain. It seems a little light in color, but it smells like redwood and the nail holes were black. I saved enough to laminate with some cedar and oak for a longer paddle for me.

I losely followed the miriad of directions available on the web for making the paddle. The large cuts were done with the table saw and anything I couldn’t do there was finished with the pull saw. Total time with the plane was about 4 hours plus another hour to rasp, sand, and balance it.

Coaming needs to be shaped yet, but all the gluing is done. I cut out the hatch this afternoon and flipped the deck over to get ready to build up the hatch lip. Here’s the progress picture for the day, click on it for more..

Tony

I started on the coaming today, so far have 6 strips in the glue-up. They are slightly less than 1/8 inch, so I will be putting 1 more on to get to the 3/4 inch mark I’m shooting for. The center strip is redwood for a nice contrast to the white pine. Also finished is the for and aft compartment shear clamps, the shaping went well and I re-sealed them with a coat of epoxy. After the coaming is built, I plan on cutting the front hatch and laying up the flange. After that is done, I can final fit the front bulkhead and join the deck and hull. I’ll probably put in a fillet of dookie smutz so the bias cut fiberglass doesn’t have to make such a sharp turn on the inside of the cockpit. Here’s a picture of never having too many clamps… Click on it for more.

Tony Olsen

I finished skinning the aft deck and around the coaming today. I’ll try to get the fore deck finished in the morning before it gets too hot.

The coaming finish isn’t a pretty as I wanted but it’ll do for now. Maybe I’ll replace it with some yellow HDPE when I get the time.

I cut out a larger sun for the deck. The other one just looked a bit too small. This one will get glued straight to the deck now that I know how well the other one glued up.

After the last post, I epoxied the rear bulkhead-hatch frame in place. This morning, I mixed up the epoxy and added Cab-o-sil to thicken it a bit. If ya work with this stuff, be sure to wear a respirator, that silca can lead to silicosis even tho the MSDS sheet doesn’t consider it much of a hazard. I used that thickened epoxy to glue the aft shear clamps in place. (picture below) A couple of spreader sticks keeps the width of the kayak in the proper shape while all this is setting up. The front bulkhead is now cut and will be final fit when the deck is closer. I also sanded and put another coat on the deck, getting pretty smooth, I think one more will do it. Tomorrow will be installing the front shears and another coat of epoxy on the deck after a bit of sanding.

Take care all,

Tony