More progress on the Kayak

[Sparky Paessler]

I got to work on the kayak today for a while. Got the hull stitched together and flipped it over, installed the bulkheads and squared it up. Then I got the epoxie in the bow section.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Hey that's really coming along Sparky....looks great. What kind of epoxy do you have to use?

[David Wilson]

Sparky
Looks like you will be paddeling in no time.

[Jim Becker]

Lookin' good, Sparky! Nice progress. I guess we should all run out and buy stock in the epoxy resin company??? :)

[Richard Kagen]

Looking good. I built a CLC 17' about 8 years ago and it is going strong - great boat. Yours looks similiar in that it will be a 4 panel hull and single curved panel deck. I just bought plans for a Pygmy triple which is built up out of 12 panels for a rounder hull and deck. I hope to pick up my first load of okume this week.

Some feedback (advice?) on your project from mistakes I made with my first kayak.

1) Weight is the enemy. Epoxy does add its strength based on thickness, rather it is in the thin uniform layers. try and keep your gussets as small as possible, just enough to make a curve to support the glass tape.
2) Scrape, trowel, roll down as much of the epoxy as possible when it is wet. the strneght of the layup depend on the cloth not floating off the surface of the wood. it also saves on the sanding
3) If you end up sanding thru any of the epoxy to the glass take the time to recoat and resand if you are going to finish bright. If not you will end up with a cloudy area of the finish.
4) Consider a layer of glass across the whole bottom of the cockpit, or at least at the foot area for impoved abrassion resistance from sandy, muddy feet. On mine I did not full fill this layer which left me a nice non-skid pattern
5) Deck rigging idea. I bought some tubular webbing from REI and heat cut the ends. using small piece I was able to make loops with a washer and loop on the inside of the loop. THis way the screw head are always covered by a the material for no scrapes and cuts. I also make my own deck toggles by sliding a piece of the tubbing over flat webbing to make a soft comfortable handle bow and stern.


Keep up the good work, where do you kayak? I am on Cape Cod for the summers.

[Dewayne Reding]

Looking great Sparky. I am hoping to do a marine project of some sort soon. Keep the updates coming.

[Dennis Peacock]

Looks good to me Sparky. Very nice. :)

[Sparky Paessler]

Thanks All!

I am in east Tennessee and we have several lakes in the area. One is only about 3 miles away from where I live. It will be great to run down after work to and paddle for a couple hours on. I wnat to build at least two so I can take people with me. I would also like to build a double. Thanks for the tips. I haven't done much epoxie work before.

[Doug Arndt]

Great pics Sparky, great start.
My brother and I are about one stage ahead of you on a pair of CLC Mill Creek 16.5's .. our first time.
Couple of tips we've learned ... keep it warm, very warm, warmer the better. The epoxy will then flow nicely, otherwise it's stiff .... since you've done the fillet work, you may have discovered this already.
We've just done the glass work on the hull's, we did a bare wood fill coat first using a roller (brush and sponge make it way too thick) then lightly sanded that then the glass. Used old credit card's to spread, worked very well, and very thin i believe. The next two coats to fill the weave, using the credit cards. Sanded this layer and it's looking real good. Added next layer with roller, now turning to next steps.
Another tip, use respirator for epoxy and dust.
Enjoy