Winter months

Things progress more slowly in the winter. Last weekend, we had a warm spell that lasted long enough for me to put the rub rails on the kayak (with the help of my dear wife, Janet). Looking for the next spell so that I can glue in the hip braces and attach the seat back. If I'm REAL lucky, it'll last long enough for me to paint the hull.

You'll recall from the last post I was looking for someone with a bandsaw. Turns out my brother-in-law, Richard, has one. I was able to roughly shape the blades of the paddle and save myself a LOT of hand planing and cutting.

Still anticipating a spring launch.

Propulsion

OK, just because it's too cold to paint or do any epoxy work doesn't mean that there isn't something to do. I figured a homebuilt wooden kayak deserves a homemade wooden paddle, so today I started to make it. It's a piece of ash that started out as an eight foot 2X6 (actually 1-1/2X5-1/2. I cut it down to 5" wide, then laid out the pattern of the paddle on it. Carefully using a circular saw, I cut out the blank for the paddle. My choices now are 1. to find someone with a bandsaw or 2. to get to work with a handsaw and plane. It will probably be the latter.

More to come.

Happy New Year!!

2007 is almost finished with 2008 showing promise of being a very interesting year. Elections, a changing economy, global warming, and (most importantly) the launch of the kayak.

Haven't had opportunity to do any work on the boat over the past week, but I have bought the paint and varnish. Now all I have to do is wait for a day warm enough to work on it.

At any rate, working on the boat has been one of the most gratifying things I've done in a long time. I've learned a lot and seeing it "grow" has been fun. For now, however, I wish all of you who have been following the progress a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2008. I leave you with this pic that was sent to me by a friend. Wonder if he's trying to tell me something?

Merry Christmas to All

It's 1:23pm on Christmas Eve, and I just finished the second coat of epoxy on the deck. I went out today and bought a couple of syringes to fill voids in the glass. I also purchased an 8' 1"X4" piece of oak to rip for the rubbing strakes. At this point, I'm ready to paint the hull and varnish the deck.

For now, I'm done. I have no idea how many folks are following this blog, but I'd like to take the opportunity to wish all of you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Kayak....

Well, it's three days before Christmas, and it's warm enough at Lake Royale for me to do some epoxy work. Since the last time I posted, the clamps have come off the coaming, the hatches have been cut, and the hatch covers glued together. Today, I put a coat of epoxy on the deck and hatch covers for waterproofing. It'll have plenty of time to cure since we're headed up to Richmond tomorrow morning. If the forecast holds, I'll put a second coat on Christmas Eve.

Below are pictures taken from inside the hatches. The one on the left is inside the rear hatch, the right the forward hatch.

Rear Hatch View

Front Hatch View

Rectified!!

Temps today reached near 70, so it was a good day to redo the coaming. The pictures show it all glued up on the boat. Won't drop below 50 tonight, so it should have plenty of time and temperature to cure up.

Highs through Thursday are supposed to be in the 60's and 70's, with lows in the 50's. This may give me ample time to cut in the hatches and maybe even "paint" the deck with epoxy. If I get anything done, you know it'll be posted here.

Another Lesson Learned

Well, once again I have given myself the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I thought I might be able to laminate the spacers and coaming together before putting them on the cockpit opening. Unfortunately, when I tried bending it down to the curve of the deck, the coaming broke in two places (see picture for illustration). In my zeal to get the boat finished before it got too much colder, I didn't allow for the lamination creating a far stiffer unit than the individual layers. This is the same stiffness formed by laminating the deck beams; I've got no one to blame but myself.

So now, I get to redraw and recut the coaming. This time I'm going to draw the template on poster board and (hopefully) end up with better shaped pieces. Glad I bought the full sheet of 6mm plywood even though the plans called for a half sheet; means I already have the material to use.