We have a launch! The project is complete

Hi everyone,

Well yesterday the kayak was put in the water for the first time. More on that in a moment.

I decided to paint the kayak blue, to match the other kayaks and because blue is one of my fav colours. My first thought was to go two tone (white hull, blue deck) but in the end it was easier to go all blue.

Looks mighty fine. But will it float?

Well, I needed to take a photo with the proud builder next to his boat. So here it is:

Of course, before I got into the boat I had to gear up. Normally I don't wear a skirt or PFD (personal flotation device) when I paddle, but this time I did.

Looks vaguely pornographic, eh? :)

Then it was time to launch the boat. Of course a crowd had gathered to cheer me on (and rescue me in the event of a lack of boat flotation). We also did Shabbat  on the beach, since this was Friday.

I figured it was a good idea to make a special Shabbat prayer for kayaks.

Then it was time to launch. A last wave to the admiring hordes.

And then it was time to hoist the kayak and take it down to the water.

sandra watched on with a fair amount of trepidation. 

Fortunately there is nothing like a glass of kosher wine to sooth the nerves, and sandra's nerves definitely needed soothing as she watched me take the boat down to the water's edge. Not to mention helping out.

Then it was time for a quick bit of paddling, and see how the boat handled.

A little bit of goofing around.

And then it was time to try and get out of the kayak, which was a little trickier than getting in!

So that's it. It's been a great build. My best birthday present ever, and hopefully one that I will continue to use for many many years to come. Thanks to everyone for their support. I love you all.

Now it's to get started on the next boat! 

Much progress, getting near the end

While I wasn't able to work on the boat as much as I had hoped, I did get a great deal done this month, and I am very close to the final steps.

First, I had to work on the coaming some more. In the end, I had to make four of them to get one done more or less properly

Turns out that laminating (at least for me) required the development of some skills which I did not have. But I am better now. Here is what the final version looks like.

It is made of red cedar, and has four laminates of about 4cm and the lip has another 4 laminates of about 8mm. There were some gaps that I filled with a water proof epoxy, and then I covered the whole thing in about 6 coats of tung oil.

My only small concern is that it does flex a fair amount when you press on it. I hope it won't crack as I get in and out of the boat. Well, I'll know soon!

With the coaming built, and all the wood oiled (tung again), it was time to start skinning, the part I was most fearful about.

First I laid out the cloth and gave it a rough trim.

Then I used a running stitch to join the seam together. You can see how loose the fabric is before it is ironed. The hot knife I bought certainly helped big time in the trimming. It would have been much less fun with a pair of shears.

After the running stitch, I used a whip stitch to finish off the seam.

The stern and bow required special handling. The bow came out okay, but I can see that I will have to figure out a better way to sew the stern on the next boat.

Probably the most challenging part of the sewing was the coaming. Trying to get everything properly lined up proved more difficult then I had imagined. I learned a great deal for the next sewing, one of thing being never to fold the cloth to try and get rid of slack.

The sewing meant that the cloth was too loose to tighten up as much as I would have liked during ironing, but I can live with it for this boat. The next will be much better.

Though the ironing did help. Here are two pics, before and after ironing. It did reduce the size of the folding quite a bit:

Anyway, finally got to the ironing, and here is how it looks this morning.

So that's it for now. In a couple of weeks, when I get back, it will be time to paint it, do some rigging, and see if it floats!

What a difference a 1/2" makes!

Recording the results of a new project is not only about the success, but also the failures. And sometimes, even small failures have large consequences.

Who ever knew that 1/2" could be so costly? It cost me about 3 days.

I made a mistake when I built my coaming (the oval opening to the kayak). I made it 1/2" too small.

Here you can see that it is only resting on 1/4" of the front deck stringer. Not solid enough!

Here you can see only 1/4" resting on the back deck stringer. Also not good enough!

Here is what it looks like from the top, which seems okay, but it ain't.

So, I had to figure out what to do.

So I built two new stringers. It turns out I didn't have a piece long enough so in the end I had to take the existing stringers, cut them with my scarf jig, and insert some extensions. Then I had to apply the tung oil. So that took time.

I also tried building a new coaming. While the one in the photo seems okay it has a couple of problems, including lots of gaps between the laminates. So I tried building another using thinner strips. Didn't work out very well. So I built a third coaming, this one out of cedar, which is working much better, plus it is lighter too.

I learned my lesson. Little mistakes can have big consequences. Next time, more measuring for sure!

Many updates, much progress

Well, even though there hasn't been an entry in awhile, progress is being made.

Here is a pic of some fabric being stretched over the frame to see how it will look once the skin is sewed on.

This one is from about three weeks ago before the stern and bow were attached, and before the lashing had started.

This is a small frame I built to practice sewing the skin. It is the part I am the most nervous about since I have never even sewn a button, let alone 18' of polyester. 

This is a form I made for the coaming (the hole that you get into the boat with). I am making it using a technique called lamination, where I wrap thin strips of wood around this until I get what I want.

This is a box of stuff I bought, which had some spillage of some citrus solvent. Very lemony smelling, but happily nothing else was damaged.

Here are a couple of shots of the boat today, all lashed up and ready for the coaming and skinning. Looking not bad, eh?

Here is a shot of the coaming being glued. I ended up using every clamp in my shop. Many thanks to my friend DaveZ for the fine maple that is being used to build the coaming.

And finally, here is a picture of the steamer I built to heat up the wood so I could bend it. That was fun.

Lake broke up today. Boats going into the water this week. Hopefully the kayak will be ready in a week or so.

A very short video showing progress to date. Work is on hold a bit waiting for some more sinew to complete the lashing

Note the lovely assistant.

So it's been a while since my last post. I was busy working for about 4 weeks, and then had a couple of weeks pass when life just stopped me from getting into the shop. But I'm back now, and so I can bring you up to date.

First off, thanks to the generous support (by way of my 60th birthday present) of some very nice people, I was able to acquire some nice new tools.

What could be in this box?

That very nice (though battered looking) box contains a very nice 12" Delta drill press. A tool that is very useful for all sorts of things, including kayak building. I opened it up, set it up, and attached the nice mortising attachment that my brother gave me one day, I think because he does not have a Delta press. Here it is all set up:

 So now I have almost all the tools I need (though I will need to buy a fabric cutter called a hot knife soon).

Anyway, after some work I managed to put the basic frame together:

Sorry for the somewhat low quality pics. I am learning that the iphone does have certain limitations as a camera.

Anyway, this past weekend we had some friends come to visit. Sam (he whose blood already has stained the frames of my boat) gave me a hand fitting most of the stringers and frames in place. No blood was spilled and we ended up with something that is really starting to look like a boat.

Still a few stringers to fit, and then I have to build the bow and stern assemblies. After that I will check to make sure everything is aligned. And then we can start the rather long process of lashing.

I am having fun! Best birthday present ever.