The price you pay . . .

Last weekend saw the mating of the deck and hull. This weekend saw the final consumation of the union - glassing the topside of the deck and tying the deck and hull together for ever (hopefully).

Friday night I had a few small jobs to complete - finishing the filleting and taping on the bulkheads. With that complete, I took the rest of the night "off" to watch some TV with the family.

Saturday morning was a beautiful sunny day and I knew that a crowd of fellow paddlers were heading out but strong is the addiction when building a boat. I turned my gaze away from the waters of the bay and headed up to the attic to glass the deck.

I read of a neat trick to get a nice clean edge when overlapping glass joins. Normally what you'd do is run a wide strip of masking tape, let the glass hang down over the strip and epoxy just overlapping the tape. When the epoxy is almost cured, take a sharp blade and cut the glass right at the edge of the tape. Looked good in the book so I figured I'd give it a whir. Not having wide masking tape and dredged up an old roll of gyprock tape. I simply ran masking tape alomg the edge and made a nice wide strip.

Then I laid the glass over the boat and trimmed it so that it fell within the confines of the strip.  I used some Schedule 40 clamps to hold the glass in place initially.

Applying the first coat of epoxy took a few hours but was rather uneventful, nonetheless.

After first coat of epoxy.

The image below shows the trimming process using the wide tape. By cutting along the edge of the tape, you are leaving a nice crisp edge. This will later be feathered after I apply my epoxy. It's nice using this metthod because you are not fighting with itinerent/wayward glass strands that can be a real PITA to keep down flat as you bush on the epoxy!!



Nice and neat!



Trimmed edge at the bow.

It's sure nice to see the whole thing covered in glass and epoxy. Below are two nice shots showing the deck with one coat of epoxy. Notice that it's not yet shiny. The first coat does not fill the weave of the cloth, instead it leaves a rough surface. This rough surface cuts down on the flash glare and makes for a nicer photo!!

Looking Fwd

Looking Aft

I entitled this entry "the price you pay" because the amount of time I'm spending on building this boat could very well be spent on paddling my plastic one. I'll admit that I would like like to get out for a paddle but then I look at this new boat and I can't wait to get it out on the water. As I always say, the water ain't going nowhere!!  It'll still be there when I'm finished this project and then I'll make up for lost time.

I have one more coat of epoxy (the 3rd)  left for the deck. Last night I started sizing up the cockpit coaminig - the next task on the list!!

Crappy work AND crappy pictures

I haven't posted in several days but work has been progressing. I just completed taping and filleting the inside seams and bulkheads.

I entitled this post "Crappy work AND crappy pictures" because, of all the work I've done so far, this was the least enjoyable as well as the hardest to get pictures of.

After joining the deck and hull, there is a need to fillet the deck/hull seam and then tape it. No big deal - IF THE BOAT DOESN'T HAVE A FULL DECK!!  This means getting epoxy/filler right to the bow and stern. Access to these points is only through the aft/fwd hatches. The aft hatch is bigger and affords a little more room to work from. The fwd, on the other hand, is mere 10" round - which means my head would fit through but not at the same time as my hands. This meant applying the fillet and tape totally blind or simply by sense of touch. Pretty tricky. I'd do a bit of work and then place a flashlight inside, pop my head in and survey the work. Repeat as necessary. This took several hours to complete.

For filleting the bow and stern, I'd scoop up the thickened epoxy on a long stick, put the stick inside the hull and drop it on the seam. Then I''d push/pull the epoxy into the seam until I had a reasonable fillet. For taping, I pre-wetted the tape, draped it over a 2' stick, pushed it out to the ends and deposited it into the seam. Using the stick, I work the tape into the seam.

The taping and filleting were VERY messy. I went through a lot nitrile gloves and got a lot epoxy on my building table. Now that this stage is done, I need to do a good cleaning of the work area.

Because I was often up to my elbows (literally) in epoxy I took very few photos.  Those I did take are pretty crappy because I simply popped the camera inside the hull and snapped them off. The dark inside made it hard to take a good photo.

In my last post I wrote about bulkheads and their reinforcement. All my bulkheads are now filletted on both sides. Each bulkhead has one side taped with 3" tape for extra strength. That should be plenty strong.

Having finished this not-so-enjoyable step, I am now ready to glass the deck top. I'd much rather working above deck, than below!!

Looking fwd - compass recess in the foreground. Yes, there a few globs of epoxy but they are right out in the stern and this is the only time they'll ever be seen!.

Looking fwd in cockpit. Bulkhead will serve as foot brace. This is very blurry image - so don't be concerned that you're going blind!!

Looking aft - white lines are saw dust that has fallen in through stitch holes! They'll just brush away.

Fwd hatch. My arm could just reach to far side of compass recess - after that required a long stick.

Return of the Porcupine Boat . . . or the joining of the hull and deck

Today was a milestone. I finally joined the hull to the deck and now have a complete boat - of sorts.

After some interior preps, i.e., adding a second coat of epoxy on the bulkheads and such, I was ready to finally mate the deck to the hull.

I bought some new wire at Princess Auto - 18 gauge with a green poly covering. About 3.00 for 30 meters = a dandy deal!

2x4s on edge provided enough room to loosely fit the wires.

Cheryl doing the "twist"

Things went together nicely. A few hiccups involving clamps but all will be fair in the end.

Tomorrow we remove the sutures and all will be be revealed.

If I may say so, day-um this is one nice lookin' craft.

Scantlings and the "expedition boat" ...

Scantlings . . . explains the structural strength through girders and I-beams in a particular section and scantling length is considered as structural length of the ship.


Many years ago I completed the first year of Naval Architecture at, what was then known as, the "Cod College". If there are two concepts that have stuck with me, they are "scantlings" and "Lloyd's Rules". If memory serves me correctly (and I'm not using Google here), to be considered insurable by Lloyds of London, ships had to have proper scantlings according to their size and application. I doubt that Lloyds was ever called upon to insure a kayak but I'd like to think that my new boat would fit the criteria!!

When building a boat there is a fine line between weight and strength. Are you willing to sacrifice weight for strength and vice versa. In researching my boat, I've found the term "expedition boat" often used to describe one that is made a bit more durable, often at the expense of lightness. Not being one to be THAT hooked up on weight, I've opted for the stronger vs lighter.

Case in point. Last night I installed the bulkheads. Tonight, the decision was how to strengthen them. The options were - a) fillet them in and then epoxy the surfaces for waterproofness b) use fillets and glass/epoxy the surfaces for waterproofness or c) use fillets and then glass the whole lot AND tape the seams!  I opted for "c" and filleted and glassed ALL bulkheads on BOTH sides and ran a 6oz tape around BOTH perimeters of all bulkheads. Excessive some may say but for the sake of those few ounces of cloth, tape and epoxy, I know that this an "expedition boat"

FWD bulkhead - 6oz glass on both sides, filleted and taped with 6oz tape.

 Rear bulkheads - 6oz glass on both sides, filleted and taped with 6oz tape. 

Having completed this, somewhat arduous task, I am now ready to fit the deck!!

Fittings, bulkheads and decisions . . .

I've decided to forgo buying deck fittings and go with a system attributed to Joe Greenley at Redfish Kayaks. According to legend (just kidding) Joe came up with an idea of using nylon webbing to hold deck lines and bungees - as per these instructions. I like the idea of soft pad eyes and the fact that I can put these on the boat after I finish painting.

I added reinforcing under the deck in spots where I plan on putting a pad eye.

A test pad eye. Easy peasy!!

I also cut and fitted the three bulkeads. I've got them filleted for now but I just read that I should glass the fillets as well. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

As it stands right now, the only thing between me and stitching on the deck is that glass tape for the bulkheads. I can do the taping and then proceed to do the deck even before the epoxy/glass on the bulkheads has dried!!

For a day or two I agonized over whether to install a skeg or not. At one point I had myself convinced I needed one and even had the plans drawn up to make it. Then I had a change of heart and decided against it. This change of heart was prompted when I looked at my keel and saw a total of 4 layers of 6oz glass, tape, fillet and epoxy!! I'd need a chainsaw to get through it.

I did some further research on the matter of skegs and came across the expected arguments for and against. The deciding factor was a little nugget I found on the Kayak Building Forum. Apparently somebody asked the exact same question as me sometime before. I read with interest the responses. The one that really tweaked was the comment that "if the designer does not include a skeg in the design, then there is probably no need to have one"  As far as I know Duane Strosaker designed the Point Bennett as a skeg-less craft. ( I stand to be corrected and, Duane, if you're reading this, please feel free to jump in) I also checked other people's builds of this craft and all, save one, appear to be sans skeg. I am willing to try the boat without the skeg and, if if does not work, I can retrofit one relatively easy.

In the meantime, I hope to join the deck and hull this weekend.   Woohooo!!

Schedule 40s and other things . . .

There's an old adage in woodworking (and boatbuilding) circles that you can never have too many clamps. My next task was the gluing the hatch spacers to the deck. This would require a substantial number of clamps if to be done correct. I'll admit that my clamp inventory is somewhat lacking. I have a few old c-clamps, some plastic spring clamps and a few bar clamps. And that's it. But, in Moores and Rossel book,  Kayaks You Can Build, (rapidly becoming my Bible) they briefly discuss the use of clamps made from ABS pipe (Schedule 40 is stamped on the side, so hence the name) Simply cut a 3" pipe into 1" sections, then split the ring.  The result looks like this:

Surprisingly, the ABS pipe really wants to retain its original shape so there is a fair bit of holding power. Of course, you are using a bigger number of these clamps which increases the holding power. Also, we're dealing with epoxy and a great deal of pressure is not required - lest we end up starving the join!!

$15.00 of pipe yielded 50 Schedule 40 clamps.

The first use of the new clamps was the gluing of the coaming lips to the spacers. As shown below.

The next step was one that I was both eagerly anticipating yet almost dreading!! I had to cut the holes in the deck for the hatches. I've cut holes in my plastic boat for both a bilge pump and an underdeck hydration system but nothing as drastic as cutting a 16x12 gaping hole!!! I followed the old rule of measure twice, cut once because a wrong cut would mean a MAJOR setback. My camera went missing during the cutting process but all went without incident. I left the holes a little small so that I could enlarge them in a more controlled manner as required.

I used the Schedule 42 clamps again when epoxying the spaces/lip to the underside of the deck. In the images below I only have a few clamps on each piece. I later doubled these amounts.

Rear and day hatch.

Fwd hatch showing compass recess.

That's a lot of clamps!!

Since I was cutting holes for the hatches, I figured I'd do the compass recess while I was at it. Again the camera was AWOL but I do have pictures of the recess in place. Again, I cut the hole too small and used a rasp and sandpaper to slowly bring it to a perfect fit. I will fillet the underside for added strength.

I glued the spacers in on Sunday AM and left them for the day to dry. Later in the evening I decided to take the clamps off. Of course this lead to some "experimental" sanding and cutting to see how how hard it will be to get a neat looking job. It was not a daunting task at all. The 4 mm deck is easy to cut and shape. I set to the front hatch and after about 30 minutes I almost had a final product.

After some shaping.

Coaming laid in place.

Coaming and hatch laid in place.

It was getting near bedtime for the rest of the family so I decided to lay off the sanding and call it a day. I wanted to get an idea of how the whole project was looking so I popped the deck back on the hull and here's what it looks like thus far. I'm a happy builder!!

All Decked Out - the 4th step

Friday night was an easy night. My son had an out-of-town b-ball game (they won) and we did not get home until 9:00. I did not get to work on the boat until 9:30. No biggie. I was only planning on glassing the underside of the deck.

As per the plans, I ran another strip of 6 oz tape up the inside of the foredeck seam and then glassed and epoxied the whole lot. Total time was less than 1 hr! For once, I am happy to say that nothing went awry during this whole thing!! Finally!!

Bow to stern

Stern to Bow. Hull to the left just waiting!!

Soul mates waiting to be forever joined!!

I'm going to apply one more relatively thin coat of epoxy and then I'm ready to do some cutting.

After that, the next stage is cutting the hatch "holes" and the installation of everything you see in the image below.

Spacers, coamings and hatches

Time to kick back and have a beer before hitting the hay. Another b-ball game in the AM!!

Thanks for dropping by!