Deck Design

Flipped the Hull and thinking about working on the Deck. It wouldn't ordinarily take that long to do, but once you decide to put some kind of design on it, it all of sudden turns into a serious time sink. Actually, I spent way too much time thinking about what i wanted the design to be, then how I was going to go about making it happen.

As you can see i decided on the swoops. then I used the thin bendy lengths to mark out the curves on my forms. Then I tried to do it to scale with measurements on paper.

FORGET about all that. Just get an idea of what you want, strip one side of the background until it overlaps the curve, then place the bendy lengths on top of the bacground, mark it, then cut our your first curve. I think that's the easiest way. There's no way I could do that percise a scale down/up with measurements and make it work.

Fiberglassing the Hull

Oh Boy!!! Fiberglassing. I guess there comes a point where you just have to give it a go. I read the kit manual, Nick Schade's book, and researched every last key word I could think about on the internet, but there came a time when I just had to let it pour.

Its nerve racking because after all the time I spent stripping, gluing, and sanding. . . when it came to fiberglassing, it felt like one false move would forever be plastered into the boat.

Here's how I prepared:
1) Started on a weekend that I had free. Though its not absolutely necessary that the glassing get done over consecutive days, its easier. The additional layers of epoxy to fill the cloth weave can either be done when the epoxy is partially cured, 4-8 hours, or fully cured >12 hours. If you chose the full cure route, then you have to wash of the amine blush and sand before adding another layer.

2) I went for the small foam roller to spread the epoxy. Many people said they didn't like the roller because it soaks up too much epoxy, or it introduces bubbles, but I thought it did a great job of spreading the epoxy quickly and evenly. And because it does absorb some expoxy, it was possible to give a little more in areas of need with a little harder pressure. Down side is they are a bit expensive and can only be used once.

3) I also bought a Squeegie and Laminate roller from Fiberlay, http://www.fiberlay.com/, since they were near my house. I got the 6" heavy duty squeegie which was really helpful, perhaps necessary. The Laminate roller was really nice too when a few big bubbles arose. I probably should have used it more, since after adding a second layer of fiber glass, i noticed some tiny little bubbles arise.

4) I got a couple graduated quart containers for mixing the epoxy, just because I was paranoid that the pumps that came with the resin and hardner would not be completlely accurate. I trust them now, so i just use small disposable plastic cups to mix the epoxy in.

5) Lastly, I got some acetone. Don't forget the acetone. Epoxy is messy stuff, especially when you're nervous and the stuff is getting all over the place. You need a good solvent to clean up your tools.

6) I also had a mask, nitrile glove, and eye protection.

This is me almost half way into wetting out the first layer of fiberglass. Every thing went surprisingly smoothly. Everyone says it, but it is wonderful to see the opaque cloth turn transparent with your now darkend rich colored kayak beneath.

After laying out the cloth over the hull on the diagonal, the bias, you just smooth it out, then pour you epoxy on and spread it out. Its pretty obvious if there's enough there, if not, then its not transparent. Then if you have it, you can use your laminate roller to squeeze out any air or epoxy pockets that are lifting the cloth from the wood. Finally, you squeegie out the excess epoxy. I used a V slit in a piece of cardboard to clean my squeegie between pulls.

There she is looking all pretty after her first layer of fiberglass.



So far, the stern was the only eye sore that I could find. The cloth does not lay flat at sharper angles, so I had to cut the cloth and overlap it. I wasn't sure if that's what you had to do, but it seemed like the only way. So my stomach turned a bit when I saw the nasty overlapped edge.

Of course, that was just the beginning. The Kit instructions say just to use one layer of cloth, but everyone else on the internet was using mutiple layers. Sometimes 2 complete layers, sometimes an extra layer just on the bottom of the hull to the stems, sometimes 3-4 extras layers on the stems. So I was conflicted. I didn't want a wimpy boat, but I also didn't know if there was enough material in the kit for an extra layer. Also, everyone was saying that you trade strenght for weight.

Anyway, I decided to add another layer just on the bottom of the boat and the stems. Well, after I did my amazingly poor job of cutting out a symmetric football shape, I started to have a sinking feeling in my gut as i started to wet out the second layer. I wasn't sure if it was my horrible cutting job or if the frayed edges always looked this bad.

Not very pretty job of cutting the cloth for the second partial layer.

Yucky, frayed edges.

The problem is that the frayed edges where I cut became more frayed as I squeegied off the excess expoy. There was glass strands and cottony looking crap all over the place. I hope that after sanding it will all smooth out, but if I were to do it again, I think I would have just added a whole second layer.

Anyway, I put on two more epoxy fill layer to fill in the weave of the cloth. That's why I wanted to have a couple of days free to try to finish the hull. But before I do any more fill layers, i'm gonna let the epoxy cure for a day and try to sand down some of the nastier looking transisitons b/w layers. Then do the final fill layers for the smooth finish. Wish me luck!

Final sanding

There she is after using a fairing board to sand her with 80 grit followed by random orbit sander 80 grit, then 100 grit fairing board, then 100 grit random orbit sander, then 120 grit random orbit sander.

I highly recommend that you have some serious ventilation or do your sanding outside. Definitely wear a respirator/ mask and glasses. I did an initial sanding in the garage because it was late and the random orbit sander was too loud. Well the next day every nook and crany of my garage had a fine red dust layer on it.

Those are the two fairing boards I made with 1/4" ply wood and spray on adhesive. One is 80 grit, the other 100 grit.

This is how the wood looks wetted down. The final sanding with 100 grit is done by hand after wetting down the wood and allowing it to dry. Wetting it makes the grain stand up or something.





Next I have to get ready for the fiberglassing. Yikes... that's scary.

Final Hull Strips

Just a few strips left!!

Gets a bit more difficut towards the end because both ends are tapered and need to be squeezed in. But as the length of the strip gets shorter, the less bending capacity you have to position the 2nd end in for the sqeeze.

The taper is pretty much marking where the full width of the strip wil meet the the other side, then drawing a line to the tip of the taper. After that its mostly using the block plane to get the right angle. If you didn't cut a perfectly straight center line, like me, then you may have to pretty that side up with a box cutter or sand paper.

Blurry picutre, but you get the idea. Just 2 strips left.

One strip left.

And finally the last strip. Its practically a sliver.





Ta-da!! All done stripping the hull now.



And here are some of the shavings. Love the shavings. Curly, nice color, smell good, and they go crunch when you smush them.

External Stem- Stern end

Here's the internal stem fully stripped and almost ready for the external stem to be glued. Joe recommended a 45 degree cut at the end, towards the center of the boat, to allow more external stem to show.


Attaching the external stem has been a true pain in the A**! The problem is that I laminated and bent the external stem at the same time as the internal stem. Bad idea. The internal stem changes shape with stripping and trimming. Probably worse is that the external stem changes shape just sitting around. Mine seemed to straighten.

Well once you have a thick 'ol chunck of semi bent hard wood, its very hard to bend it more once its laminated. So my suggestion to you is to save the laminating of the external stem until its time to attach it.

Darryl gave me that great tip, but unfortunately it was a few days after I lamintated them.

I was, for the most part, able to whittle down the internal stem of the stern side to fit the external stem. This picture is from that process.


It wasn't a perfect fit, but close enough.

That darker color is my attempt to steam the external stem one last time to undo any extra tension that may be there by forcing the stem to fit with clamps.

The thing is that with enough clamps you CAN make the external stem fit, but it will be under tension, which is a bad idea. Joe said during hot days the glue may give a little and the stem may start to apply stress to the fiber glass... overall not good for the structure of the boat.

I'm dealing with the bow end now with some suggestions from Joe.

1) Try to shape the internal stem. Well that isn't quite going to work b/c the external stem is too straight and I'd have to cut into the 1st station to bring the internal stem down far enough.

2) Bend it with steam. That's virtually impossible since the laminated stem is really too thick for the steam to penetrate. I've steamed the sucker numerous times without success.

3) Shave the external stem as much as possible, then steam it. The thinner the wood, the better chance you have of steaming it properly. That's what i'm trying now. Lots of water on a wash cloth and a very hot iron. If you can steam well enough then the wood will relax and take a new shape. That avoids any tension built into the boat.

4) If all else fails, get more material and re-laminate the external stem to fit the internal stem exactly.

Tapered Ends

Now that I'm done with the less complicated part, I can now enter into the finer shaping bit. It takes a while to get used to shaving the ends of the strips to squeeze in to the slender wedge where the one side meets the midline.


The first few strips were kinda perplexing to me cause the strip was width was nearly vertical, so to fit it I had to cut into the thickness of the strip and the width. Pretty much just marked it as best as I could, shaved it with the block plane and tried fitting it about a billion times 'til i got it right.


Here's a picture of a rougher cut. Still gots a ways to go to get it in there perfectly.

Finishing One Side

Starting to overlap the internal stem part.

Nearly stripped full to midline.




Cut and planed down internal stem with strips attached. Been wanting to clean that up for a long time.


Finally, got to cut the overhanging ends to make a straight midline. Now for the hard part of fitting the ends of the other stips to the right angle.

More Strips, more clamps

Started using more clamps since they're a bit faster than masking tape. The quick grip ones are nice since you can place them with one hand. The bar clamps are only good until the strips start making the curve to the bottom of the boat.






Here's a picture of the bow. The internal stem is nearly fully stripped. From here on out I will need to strip only one side until I cross over the midline.

Stripping the Hull sides

The wood strips that came with the kit have a cove and bead on either side of the length of the strips. That just means that the edge is either concave or convex. So when you glue the edges together, it makes a better fit. And as the strips have to curve around the boat the cove can rotate on the bead.

Darryl, a friend I met at the Redfish Kayak shop in Port Townsend, sent me a bunch of home made clampy dealies. They arent really clamps as much as pieces of wood that hold the strips down on the other strip, and against the stations. They're pretty important if you are going to make the kayak without staples.


The wood clampy dealies do a decent job of holding the strips down, but I think using masking tape does a better job of holding more tension.

The ends of the kayak are upswept, so the strips have to bend a bit. Its a bit harder to keep those parts of the strip in place. Gotta use more clamps and tape.

Another thing I found out about the ends, bow and stern, is that the cedar strips want to pull up on the internal stem to become straight again. Since the internal stem isn't really anchored down at the furthest end, it will start to pull away from the form. I tried to duct tape the internal stem down, but then had to reinforce the duct tape with some staples.

1st Strips!!!

After struggling with the internal stem shape, i finally decided to place the first strip. I used cut paint stirring sticks as little shelves to hold my first strip at the sheer line. Then hot glued the strip to the duct tape covered stations. The ends of the strips were wood glued and clamped to the internal stem.

The easier way to do it is to directly staple the strip to the stations, but that ends up leaving little holes in your kayak. The holes get filled up, but you can still see them.

The first strip helps show any mal alignments in the stations, or so i'm told. I think everything looked okay, so i didn't end up adjusting any of the stations.

Internal Stem

The first real building task was laminating the internal and external stems. They are at the ends of the boat. The internal stem is where you attach the strips at the end, and the external stem is there for added support at the upswept ridge of the bottom of the boat.

I was supposed to laminate the stems with unthickened then thickened expoxy. I didn't know what that meant so I asked Joe about it. Unthickened expoxy is the 2:1 mixure without the hardening powder. He said that I didnt even need to use the expoxy since the stems should not see water once glassed. So i went with wood glue.



Here is the internal stem alone, mounted on the form with screws. You can't see it very well, but this piece of wood is actually thin strips of cedar glued together to make a thicker strip of wood, which needed to be bent to the form.

Next I had to shape the internal stem so the end of the strips would lay flat. I didn't really have any idea exactly what that should look like, so Joe had to send me some pictures. It ends up looking kinda like a triange with the top ridge about 1/8th inch.



Here are some pictures of my partially shaped internal stem.







You can see how the unshaped stem is rectangular and the shaped part is angled. At first i tried using a block plane to shape it, but that didn't really take off enough wood. Then I started using a rasp (4 in 1 rasp), which worked much faster. I followed that with some 60 grit sandpaper covering the rasp, then 80 grit for the final shaping. I'm certain there is a faster way, but that's what I did with the tools I had.

(addendum: After working on the internal stem along the way, I ended up mostly using a sturdy box cutter to do the initial shaping then using sand paper to do the finishing touches.)