Keel strips

I started laying keel strips on the bottom of the kayak. I am way behind where I should be in this build. Other things in life have distracted me from working on the kayak. Tomorrow I plan a full day of work. I hope to make good progress.

Gluing up strips

Like I said in my last post, gluing strips is a slow process. It would go faster if I used staples. Many people do use staples to lay strips. You do not need to wait for the glue to dry before you lay the next strip. You can lay all the strips in a weekend that way. But because I don't want staple holes all over my kayak I have decided to do it the slow way.

Glue a strip and wait until the glue dry's. Then glue another strip. I will glue a strip in the morning before going to work, another strip after work, and then one more before going to bed.

Slow progress

Things are moving very slow. Very little progress. We have had a crazy September. Lots of illness and injury with close family members. Lots of time spent visiting hospitals. And at the same time I have had to work extra hours at work to fill in for others.

I do try to work at least 15 or 20 minutes every day on the kayak. I glue a strip and let it dry. Then the next day I glue another strip and let it dry.

A few weeks ago I went kayaking with my friend Ted. He has a Chesapeake 17LT that he built himself. It's the only home built kayak I have ever seen other than our Wood Duck. It is truly a beautiful boat. It is the first sea kayak that I have put my hands on. At first I was scared that I would tip over, but after 10 minutes or so it felt great. Very fast and very smooth. The Wood Duck is a very stable platform but the CH 17LT comes alive in the water. Ted did a fantastic job building his kayak and now he is building a power boat.

sheer strip

I just installed the sheer strips. The sheer strip is the parting line between the hull and the deck. The kayak is upside down with the bottom of the hull pointing up.

You can click on the photo to enlarge it if you want to.

On the floor you can see the next strip to go on. I used two and a quarter strips and scarfed them together to get one strip long enough to go the full length of the kayak.

The five 1x6 boards are western red cedar. Look at the multi colored streaks in the wood. On Saturday I will saw them into 1/4 X 3/4 strips on the table saw set up in my last post.

The two 1x6 boards with the green painted ends are basswood. This wood is almost pure white in color. I will saw them into strips but they will not be needed until I build the deck.

The dark colored 1/4 x 1/4 strips are purple hart left over from the wood duck. They will also be used in building the deck.

Special thanks to my beautiful wife Donna who put up with my grouchy butt and fixed this stupid computer so that I could post on this blog today. I would be lost without her.

Lou

table saw

Here are some photo's of my table saw. Here it is set up in the man cave but I do most of my sawing out in the driveway. That keeps the saw dust outside and not all over the house.

Strongback & forms

This is the strongback with all the forms attached. This is a very challenging process but it makes you feel good when you stand back and look at it.

Tomorrow I will flip it over and get it ready to start laying cedar strips on the bottom.

Forms for the Guillemot

Using the lofting offset charts in Nick Schades book, I was able to draw the forms that I need for the Guillemot.

I was able to cut them all from a half sheet of 5/8 particle board.

It would have cost $375 to buy the forms pre cut. I have about $9 invested in the particle board.

I know they say that time is money. And it took a lot of time to lay out all the forms and cut them out. But I have lots of time and very little money. Besides, It makes me feel like I have accomplished something good.