Cast-Away 15 build

About this time last year I built my skin on frame canoe while I worked on the idea of building a skin kayak for fishing. I have played with the design off and on. Last week I started building the prototype, discovered lots of problems and went back to the drawing board.

Here is what I came up with. 14.5' long. Large open cockpit and a open well behind you for the a square milk crate. Going to reinforce the area between the cockpit and well so I can mount rod holders. Anchor trolley may be added at some point.

I expect the boat to weigh around 30 lbs once finished. I started cutting out the frame tonight and will start assembling the frame this week.

What's the milk crate for? Just to hold your 'stuff'? Pretty good idea...

Any problem reaching behind you get get the rods or stuff out of the crate without dumping the kayak

All I can say is WOW!

Brent Dowell said:

What's the milk crate for? Just to hold your 'stuff'? Pretty good idea...

Any problem reaching behind you get get the rods or stuff out of the crate without dumping the kayak

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Milk crates are very common with Kayak Fisherman. You can store all you stuff in there and they are easy to carry around. Bungees hold them in place on the boat. Kind of like a shirt pocket.

This boat is pretty stable so shouldn't be a problem at all. Of course if you are not familiar with kayaking then yea, you could end up doing the first half of an Eskimo roll.

I will put separate rod holders that will be closer to edge of the boat and easier to reach.

I fish out of a 13'8" Old Town Loon. I think you are on the right track. I like the big opening. Fishing out of the smaller kayaks I find I get claustrophobic after sitting a while, and I like to be able to move around more.

I cut a hole in the back of mine for a plastic cooler. Does the same thing as a milk crate but is multi purpose. Sometimes we do rivers using this kayak because it hauls so much, so then the cooler is a cooler. I need to figure out how to put a small lip around the hole for when the deck gets washed over, but its Royalex[?] May just do a teak surround.

I made up a set of outriggers with pontoons that I can clip on when out in big water fishing. Couple of reasons, one, I fall asleep sometimes and two there are a lot of boats makeing rouge waves, and so see #1. I came up with this the second time I woke up upside down.

Do two halves of an eskimo roll make a whole?

I never got around to holders so I am curious where you end up mounting them. Another thing I am contemplating is adding a trolling motor tube. I go out in the spring and troll for walleye, but the shoulders are getting to old for that. Ever heard of anyone doing that?

I'm curious to see how this project of yours goes. If I ever get my business setup[downsizing] where I can relax a bit I want to build a kayak for lakes.

The other Larry

I am anxious to see where this goes too Larry. I put a sketch on my web site about a similar fishing version and I have been surprised at the interest it has stirred. So it is high on my list to get this one on the water and work out the bugs in it. Besides it's starting to warm up and fish are going to be headed into the shallows soon!

Jeff Horton said:

Besides it's starting to warm up and fish are going to be headed into the shallows soon!

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Ya...... it was -2 here this morning. Ice fishing maybe, out of my van....

So, Jeff... could you do a 2 person SOF kayak? What kind of length would that be? Would that be one long cockpit, or two separate ones?

(My only experience is with occasional canoe use, but I am intrigued by your plans. We're starting to plan a canoe camping trip for later this summer.)

Art Mulder said:

So, Jeff... could you do a 2 person SOF kayak? What kind of length would that be? Would that be one long cockpit, or two separate ones?

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It has been done and that was one of my initial goals. I was thinking one large single cockpit. A cross between a decked canoe and a kayak. I have changed directions for the moment since I scraped the concept boat. The new design sticks to what I know works.

My initial idea was a 17 footer (more or less) with floors so you could just slip in a Crazy Creek chair and move it around so you could paddle solo or tandem. may pursue that next. Not sure.

Looks like a nice project.

You could have called it the 3 hour tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY

Made some progress today on the frame. I am going to try to get it finished this weekend. I have a lot of work next week so I will not get to spend much time on it. Not sure that is realistic but I am going to try anyway.

Very interesting. I was wondering if there is any benefit to this skin method compared to an strip built or even stitch and glue. You said it would weigh approximately 30lbs. I know a strip built or stitch and glue may weigh just a tad bit more, but not too much. How puncture resistant is the skin?

I am not trying to talk bad about your build, just very curious. I am familiar with stitch and glue and strip built, just not this type of boat building.

I will be following this closely.

Matt

I just watched your video on your website. I will say they are pretty darn tough.

I spent nearly the whole day working on the frame. Between phone calls I worked on lashing the joints together. I can really feel it in my knees too! Even with the pads standing on concrete all day is rough.

I don't think all the work really shows but I do expect to finish up the frame this weekend. I finally gave up and the only thing left before I can take it off the strong back is the coaming.

Tomorrow I want to work on installing some plywood hard surfaces just under the skin to for mounting surfaces.



Bow end. Hoping I don't regret that high bow. But it will be great if the ride gets a bit wet.




Stern view

A little update. I have been busy working on paying jobs so I have not been able to spend to much time on this one. I received my rod holders today and and I finished up the hard points to mount the rod holders on.



I take a couple of thin strips and locate them and mark their location.



Once I am happy with the location I glue them in place.



I then fit a piece of plywood. Yes I recycle wood when ever I can. As you can see I just notch around the lashing.



Once everything fits right I glue it place. Once it dries I will be able to locate the rod mounts and pre-drill the holes before skinning.

All that is left then is to install some footrests and take it off the strong back. Then oil it and then it's ready for skinning.

Very cool, Jeff. Looks like building one of these is a combination of some accurate measurements (particularly in designing the shape) along with seat-of-the-pants "build to fit" methods. (to work around and with the different shapes).

LOL! Very true Vaughn, never thought of that before but your right.

OK version III is underway. I want to say I like what I see but I did on the other two versions too.

Finally got to get back on this. Paying jobs have gotten in the way but as slow as it has been that is not a bad thing. I finished up the modified design and cut new frames. First order of business was the old frame needed to be recycled. Unfortunately there is no recycling the frames but the stringers will be used again.





With the new frames cut I started to set up the strong back. This part goes pretty quickly.



Insert the rest of the frames and everything looks great so I started lashing. I have about 1/3 of the hull lashed. Hoping to get that done tomorrow, then start working on the coaming and some seat boards after that.

Jeff,

I love your posts, I always wanted to build my own boat. I had a question, could you sew the 12oz nylon for the bottom for toughness and the poly for the top for diff color and little bit savings in weight?

Thanks,

Brian

Brian Altop said:

Jeff,

I love your posts, I always wanted to build my own boat.

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I'm with him...