Thursday, March 31, 2011

Stick a fork in me, I'm done (almost)

Tonight was the most surreal night of this entire project. On the agenda was deck lines, bungees, seat, sheer and keel strips. Surreal because it was so relaxing - the jobs at hand were not dirty (no sanding, no paint, no glue, no epoxy and glass). They were the finishing touches and that, in itself, was a joy!

Joins in the deck lines and bungees were whipped with dental floss and then wrapped in self-vulcanizing rubber tape. It looks pretty neat.

I've gone with the standard crossed bungees on the foredeck for now but will replace with a netting in time.




In my previous posting I wrote, at length, about Gorilla Tape. I mentioned that I was contemplating using it on the sheer and keel.  Tonight I made the "command" decision and went with both!!

The tape on the sheer makes for a nice transition from the blue to white.

Below are a  few shots showing the sheer tape and deck lines/bungees in place.






Seeing how easy the sheer tape went on and how good it looked, I kept going with the keel strip.  I like to call it the "sacrificial gorilla"

I simply ran the tape up the stern, then pulled out the full length to the bow but not allowing it to touch the hull. I lined it up by eye and laid it down on the keel. A little bit of jiggling and a nip and tuck at the stem/stern and here's how it came out!!  Any concerns of a twisted/crooked keel were allayed when I put down the tape - nice and straight!

The sacrificial gorilla to appease the Rock Gods!


Nip and tuck!

Sheer and keel. Notice the texture of the tape - looks like glass!!

Stern shot!

The plan is to try and get the boat out for a run tomorrow. Forecast is for light winds, sunshine and a temp of 4 Celsius.  Sounds good to me  so hopefully a trip to St. Philip's is in order!!

Thanks for dropping by  - won't be long now!!

p.s.  Tomorrow, April 1st, will be exactly two months, to the day, of starting this project!!

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the build. Have a nice paddle tomorrow. And enjoy having all of your free time back. You won't know what to do with yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Duane! So how does it feel to see another one of your "babies" being born and take to the water?

    I'm cerainly looking forward to hitting the water. I took two months off open water paddling to make this boat, so it's going to feel good getting back out there - especially in a brand new boat!! Luckily spring is somewhere around the corner here, so I'll be able to find things to occupy my time - like house work that's been languishing of late!!

    I'll take my camera to the maiden voayge and will post images in my next entry.

    Thanks,

    Sean

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks great! Congratulations on finishing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your new kayak, sure it will be great on the water. I am interested to see how the gorilla tape works out as a rub strip. this is the biggest problem that I have. I am forever repairing the ends of my boats due to the sandpaper effect of beach landings, so keep posting and let us know how it holds up.

    ReplyDelete