Fiberglass kayak

After nine months and roughly 475.00 the boat is complete. And I’m kind of proud of it warts and all. Early on it became very obvious that there were no reliable reference lines or points so I had to build it mostly by eye. The cockpit and coaming could have been wider, taller and a…

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Even though the boat is under 14′, I thought I needed handles to carry it and to tie it down while it’s on the van. Similar to my Heron, I made two handles of 1 1/4″ dowel 4″ long. I drilled/routed out one side to allow room for knots. I sanded the edges and gave…

Once the hidden spacers were epoxied in, the next part of the hatch structure is the lip. This is where the weatherstripping seals the hole Using wider plywood strips, I cut and fit the strips to make a single-piece lip.     Using fiberglass cloth for the joints actually worked out pretty well. Even cured,…

If there was ever a time to make sure you’ve got it right, it is now! There’s no do-over when cutting the hatches. It’s slicing a hole in a perfectly good boat. The cut out needs to fit right back where it came from so there’s very little room for fudging. Sanding and filling won’t…

Finally it’s starting to come together. I’ve finished painting the hull and the cockpit (well not quite done in the cockpit yet). It took two coats to cover. The varnish took a little longer. I used the time-tested  wet-edge technique to apply the varnish: Pick a small area about 18″ wide in most cases one…

With the hull sanded and prepped, now was a good time to paint the hull (and the coaming). The weather outside called for warm and clear skies with little wind-perfect for painting. This marine polyurethane smells really strong so it had to happen outside with lots of fresh air. I taped off the waterline edge…

OK, not really. I knew this was coming. It’s time to sand the epoxy to get it ready for the varnish on the deck and the polyurethane on the hull and the coaming. The goal here is to smooth out the epoxy so that the finish has a good base for adhesion. The hull will…

Finally, the custom name plate arrived. It’s a perfect size to fit right behind the cockpit framed by the two accent designs on the rear deck           I used the tried and true method of holding the plate in place while the epoxy cured. Next, for a touch of detail, I’ll…

Charlie Allnut: A man takes a drop too much once in a while, it’s only human nature. Rose Sayer: Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above. The African Queen  

As a heavy user of tools, there are some items you simply can not have enough of like Phillips screwdrivers or 9/16″ wrenches. I’d like to add clamps to that list. But let me back up a bit. I needed to build a coaming to to frame the cockpit so I traced the opening and…

Finally, time to do some actual testing. I had some initial concerns about the  shape of the hull and primary stability which proved valid. The broad v-shape hull with no chine makes for a very tippy boat with poor primary stability. I demonstrate that in the video by rocking the boat side to side and…

The glassing went very smooth, almost too smooth, I kept waiting for the other paddle to drop and it never did. It turned out just as it should except at the beginning. I’d purchased 4oz cloth for this deck. Measured the length twice to make sure I was ordering a long enough piece. What I…

Sanding and finishing is rewarding yet it can be so mundane and boring. It’s critical that you get it right because once the finish is on you have to live with your work. This boat took a lot of sanding. Actually it took some planing to get it to a point where I could sand…

With the inside of the separated deck now cured, the next and very critical step was to attach the desk to the hull. This was tricky for several reasons. First, the shear strip was not perpendicular to the first deck strip. The strip kind of twists and turns depending on where the old sheet deck…

With the deck now planked it was time to release and separate the deck, forms and hull. I removed all the copper wire but had to heat the hot glue joints a little with a heat gun but all the forms release. The picture on the right is the deck upside down in the cradle….

At last, the whiskey plank. The last piece in the deck. I managed to get a good fit without cutting myself with the plane. The deck in finished. Now comes the interesting part. I will need to remove the deck from the hull then finish the underside of the deck then epoxy it back in…

I thought adding a decorative inlay design to the desk would be a nice touch. I used some left over yellow and red cedar and built three, two for the stern, one for the bow. I wanted these to be a specific locations on the boat and since I was not sure how the arc…

The deck planking continues to be both fun and a challenge. At times its slow going almost tedious. It really covering the deck 3/4″ at a time. A good comparison might be mowing an acre-sized lawn with a small push mower. You’re making headway each row that you finish but after you complete the row…

The first few strips were quite difficult. Starting from the back, the laid flat and then slowly rotated to vertical along the cockpit but by the time the strips connected to bow, they were flat again twisting 90 degrees in less than 30″. The first strip I used gave out and snapped at about that…

The first form (notice the 1 in black) in place. In a previous post I showed the forms. But all were just setting in place. Now they need to be fastened solidly to the hull-not permanently but strong enough to hold during abuse yet be able to release from the hull when it’s time take…

Glassing the inside of the hull can be tricky. Sometimes nearly impossible without gaps, bubbles and dry areas. This one was especially difficult. I used 6oz cloth which is thicker (it’s what I had on the shelf) plus the surface was very uneven with large spaces where the wood had been removed. I had been…

The hull is sanded smooth inside and out. It’s repaired, patched and epoxied and glued. It’s ready for glassing. The object is to get the cloth smooth. That’s best done with the weave (bias) at an angle. The 4oz piece I used was not quite cut at that angle so getting it smooth was a…

The hull has a number of areas like this. You can actually see through to the inside of the hull and in some case the glue from inside seeped through. Otherwise, the wood seems pretty solid.       Hand sanding after cutting away most of the loose veneer            …

Once I flipped the boat to start the hull work, I wanted to flip it back upright again, ala Eskimo role. Very overwhelming. It seemed that every square foot was loose or damaged or needed some sort of work. Where to start? In the middle. I choose the worse area and soon found that delaminate…

I just ordered the 6oz fiberglass and epoxy for the first boat from CLC Boats. That stuff is NOT cheap but CLC’s prices are still about the best plus I know it’s good quality. I’ve just about finished the inside of the hull and am ready to flip it to start on the outside. I’m…

That’s where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory. Open up a little hotel right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up new. Take my guests out charter fishing… Andy Dufresne“The Shawshank Redemption”