Hannah really enjoyed the Sea Pup and managed to dump it a few times. She doesn’t have a spray skirt yet so she had to exit each time. Travis even gave it a paddle and except for one trip a bit too far out he enjoyed himself.

The Sea Tour paddled nice. There isn’t a lot of initial stability (at least for my inexperience) but it’s got some secondary stability. I managed to lay back and sit back up a few times. Need to watch a couple more DVDs before I try rolling all the way over. I still need a lot of work on bracing and turning but it’s a fun workout.

Here’s a pic to tide you over till I can write more.

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.

The process is pretty easy. Measure the void to be filled with the float bag. You will need the circumference of the hull on both ends and the length of the void. For the SeaPup that was 44″ long, 40″ at the wide end and 22″ at the narrow. I just measured around the outside of the hull for the circumference.

Cut out two trapazoids that looks like this, lay them flat on each other and glue about a 1/2″ strip around the edge. Put a piece of vinyl tubing (I used 5/8″ OD) in the tab and glue and clamp it so it won’t leak. Metal spring clamps with the rubber tip removed work great.

I used the same HH-66 glue thinned with MEK that I glued the skin with.  I would suspect that regular PVC pipe cement would work in a pinch.  One of these days I’ll get around to buying a can and testing it’s strength.

I had a bit of problems with a small leak around the tube. I glued two flat patches to either side and clamped it again. I let it sit longer before I blew it up the second time and it was still drum tight 3 days later.

As you can see in the picture below it does a great job of inflating the voids even when the holes in the frames are small.  Just be careful not to blow it up too tight our you might break the deck stringer.

It was 105F in the shed when I got home so I didn’t get too much done.

I glued some extra fabric to the bow and stern and pulled out some more of the wrinkles. Then stapled the skin to the gunwales and cut the excess loose.

I started working on the float bags but it was too hot to wear the respirator for long. I’ll move a table out under a shade tree tonight to finish up the bags and then start preparing to skin the deck. Hannah helped me design a nice smiling sun for the deck. I need to experiment with the glue a bit tonight to see if I’ll be able to put this down cleanly.

I started skinning the hull today. Lacing up all that cord sure is time consuming. I think it went well and I managed to pull out all the wrinkles below the chine and most of the ones above. There are some small ones near the gunwale but I don’t think they’ll spend much time in the water or affect the handling any.

I’ve glued the stern and will go back soon and glue up the bow. It’s amazing how strong the glued joint is after just 10 minutes. I ran a few tests with some scraps. After 5 minutes I could get the joint to slide but at 10 minutes it wasn’t budging without a fight.

I still need to finish the coaming and may start over because I’m not happy with how this one turned out.  I tried using some cheap 1/2″ ply and there were a lot of voids.  Maybe I’ll run by Lowes at lunch and see if they have any luan that I can laminate to make work.

I received the skin from Rochford Supply. It was $3 cheaper per yard than Tom’s source and appears to be the same stuff. When he’s done moving and gets some internet I’ll see about sending a sample so he can test it and compare it to the Coverlight from Mauritzon.

The coaming is nearly done and I’ve posted some pics of the floor and foot brace. Click the image to see more.

Hannah pretends she’s floating on water while Kaner offers “help” with a tennis ball.

I stood the kayak on end on the scale and it weighs 15.6 lbs (7 kg).   The 14 feet (4.2m) sure does look tall standing up next to Hannah’s 50 inches.  She still thinks it’s too heavy but I’m sure she’ll get over that once she gets to paddle it.

I’ve now got the floor boards cut out and set in place and have started on the coaming riser and lip. I’ll try to get some more pictures up tonight.

Well, not actually finished, but it’s all glued and lashed in two places that I don’t think the glue will hold. I had to shim a few places and the chines aren’t perfectly symmetrical but they’re close. I think the worst error was a 3/8″ difference between sides and most are under 1/8″. There are plenty of things I’d do different but since there’s $50 wrapped up in wood here I might as well put a skin on it and see how it handles.

I had Hannah hold it on the scale today and it weighs in at 18 lbs with a dozen bungees. I expect it’ll drop at least a pound, maybe two when I remove them. Looks like we’re still on target for a final weight around 25 lbs. Hannah thought it was heavy but she could lift it and carry it on her shoulder without grunting too much.

It might be possible to drop the weight of the frame by using a smaller keel and gunwales but I err’d on the side of caution since this will be used primarily by kids and possibly some of my lighter friends.

The gunwales and deck ridge are all glued and everything is taped and bungeed up for the night. There were a couple places that I had to pull the gunwales in to close a gap. I hope they don’t pull out once I release the bungees.  The Tightbond III is very thin and takes a bit of patience to work with but at least it’s easy to sand once it dries.

I also cut and glued in the fore and aft supports for the floor boards. I’m going to use some clear fir ripped down to 1/2″ thick and 3″ wide for the floor. Should the floor be glued or bolted in place? I’m concerned that a slat ight break and need to be replaced but bolts might not be as stong as glue. I’ll get a picture of it once the fir is cut and set in place.
I haven’t decided how to do the foot pegs. I have an idea that I could fabricate out of wood, just need to test it and see if it’s strong enough. I may end up settling for a block of foam. Any thoughts on this?

Finished up the bow and stern yesterday and the chines late last night. Tonight I’ll knock it all apart and finish up sanding a few rough spots before I start gluing it together. Hannah was disappointed to hear that I’d have to take it all apart again before I glue it.

I’ve decided to to use Tightbond III glue since it is easy to work with and waterproof. I’ve used Gorilla glue on some of the parts already but don’t care for how it foams up. I know I’m using too much glue but it’s not easy to judge how much is enough. Gorilla glue does sand well after just an hour or so at 95F but there will be too many difficult to reach joints in the rest of the frame.

I ordered the PVC skin and glue on Friday and will be ordering a respirator today. I’m getting this one from Amazon: AO Safety 95090 Quicklatch PRO Dual-Cartridge Respirator. If all goes well and shippments arrive in a timely manner I’ll be ready to skin it this weekend.

I did end up using a board with a knot in the gunwale but patched over it with a this piece of cedar. Click the picture to the right for more details.