Kayak build **Finshed and on the water**

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
Stared working on the Skin on Frame kayak. I am impressed with how much I have done in the amount of time. When I quit tonight I had 23 hours in it. The frames are just loosely in place, sort of a dry fit.

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The frames

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The dry fit.

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A closer view of the cockpit area.
 
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Couple of questions. Are you working off of a set of plans or just your own thoughts. What kind of skin are you going to put on it. By the way it looks grest.
 
I watched a bit of a show tonight called Kayaking Norway

A bunch of guys, , were kayaking down rapids and then down a waterfall surrounded with rocks, maybe a 30-40 foot drop and they go straight down into it.
I cringed everytime I watched one of them go over the edge.
 
Are you working off of a set of plans or just your own thoughts. What kind of skin are you going to put on it.

Yes and no. I have plans of sorts. I designed the boat in some naval software. Then I printed out a chart with offsets for each frame. Laying out the corners of each frame on the ply and cutting them out.

Then mounted two frames to the strong back and started adding stringer and ribs.

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The skin will be nylon I think. If not a polyester skin. But I am leaning toward a 9 oz. nylon at the moment.

A bunch of guys, , were kayaking down rapids and then down a waterfall surrounded with rocks, maybe a 30-40 foot drop and they go straight down into it.

I am old enough to be smarter than to try that. And old bones don't heel as fast either. :eek:
 
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the skin does shrink to the sides as it dries right? i have a couzin that makes canoes with some fabic then paints this coatin on it and it gets tight like a drum.. also the second or third time gets easier as well huh:)
 
Larry, he may be using canvas, which many canoes were covered in. I don't know much about canvas. Most nylon doesn't shrink much so you just have to stretch it tight when you put it on. I have found a source for some nylon that is supposed to heat shrink so I will probably go with that.
 
Larry, he may be using canvas, which many canoes were covered in. I don't know much about canvas. Most nylon doesn't shrink much so you just have to stretch it tight when you put it on. I have found a source for some nylon that is supposed to heat shrink so I will probably go with that.

How about Kevlar? That's mighty strong.
 
...may be using canvas, which many canoes were covered in. I don't know much about canvas. Most nylon doesn't shrink much so you just have to stretch it tight when you put it on. I have found a source for some nylon that is supposed to heat shrink so I will probably go with that.

Back about 1972, I built a 15' canoe using canvas over ribs and stringers. The instructions back then were to fit the canvas as snugly as possible, but not too tight, then pour boiling water over the canvas to shrink it in place. The shrinking also pulled any minor wrinkles out.

I used that canoe on lakes and rivers in the Pacific Northwest for about four years, and sold it when we moved to SoCal. It gave very good service, and suffered the indignity of several patches. My wife and I had a lot of fun with it.
 
Recently read about shrinking cotton/canvas with boiling water. Had not hear of that till just a couple weeks ago while researching fabrics.


Spent a couple of hours last night attaching the the frames and stringers. I need to get everything fitted together so I could start shaping the ends. Just used a drywall screw as a temporary clamp(s). I drilled pilot holes on all the frames so that the screw wouldn't try to split the plywood or run off crooked. Doesn't look much different.


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Next step is trimming the ends of the stringer and attaching them to the plywood stems. Also once those are marked I will trim the stems down it size and refine their shape and remove some excess wood there.

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I now have the frame glued together. It was cool in my shop yesterday so I left the heat on all night. Just went down to let Sadie out. (Since it was cold I let her slept in the warm shop which she thinks is her house.) The epoxy had set so I guess it is ready to unclamp.

Started working on the coaming around the cockpit. Had to make it twice because I wasn't thinking on the first one. Doesn't look much different but there been a good of work done since the last photos.

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Today I am working on finishing up the coaming stack and installing the foot braces. Installing some misc bits and pieces. Should be ready to skin next week, unless I am forgetting something.
 
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Change in plans. I just couldn't get a good feeling about the coaming I was making and was not sure why. I finally just quit for the night. The more I thought about just stacking plywood to make a coaming I realized what I didn't like, it was going to be ugly and not up to my standards.

So I did some research and discovered the traditional ways appealed to me. So today I started to laminate up layers or 3mm plywood around a form.

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Once it is done it literally is sewn onto the fabric of the boat and that is all that holds it in place. It just rests on the frame on both ends.

Then I went out of a paddle in the cold. The water is really cooling off now.
 
Wanted to show the latest progress on my project. I should finish the frame up tomorrow and if nothing happens I plan to spray the finish on the frame late tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night. Then it will be time to order the skin for it!

Here are the photos.

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This thing is UNREAL light weight!! I pick it up one handed and walk around with it. I don't have scales to weight it on but I am guessing the frame is 20 lbs? I still have to add the floors, the foot rest and of course the skin. But this boat should weight in no more than 35 lbs and while it hard for me guess, I am guessing much less. But the size may make it appear lighter than it really is.

Back to the shop. Going to finish up those details and epoxy the last things in place.

Jeff
 
lookin good jeff,, on the frt and back are you gonna reenfiorce those area's remeber your first got a bust nose one day and on this one you got onley some plywood on edge for stuffness???
 
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