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.