Now that is an impressive piece of art! Nice lines..........
Seems a shame to stick in the drink though.
Well done.

Does that mean you'll have the frame sitting around to make more kayaks?

4liters wrote:Does that mean you'll have the frame sitting around to make more kayaks?

sort of - the basic strong back can except the same or a new set of forms making a kayak around the same length

I got a good start on the deck today - with a bit of luck I could be ready to start sanding it up next W/E to get ready for some F/Glass

Can i borrow that pedestal table? Long term of course

It's looking really good with the deck on it.

Do you have to steam or heat the strips beforehand to make them flexible enough for the curves?

Looking good Cheater.

Are you going to include any detailed patterns with contrasting timber colour or just stick with the same wood throughout?

shane wrote:Looking good Cheater.

Are you going to include any detailed patterns with contrasting timber colour or just stick with the same wood throughout?

sticking with the paulownia for it's weight which is about 15 % lighter than Western Red Cedar in fact it's surprisingly light
I was going to give staining a go before glassing but will try it on some scrap first

my first thoughts were to paint the hull and clear the deck but am thinking to try the stain on the hull first --- it it fails I can go back to plan A

greggo wrote:It's looking really good with the deck on it.

Do you have to steam or heat the strips beforehand to make them flexible enough for the curves?

the strips bend and twist fairly well with out any help from steam or a heat gun
as you can see you do use a bit of tape to pull the strips together but that is enough to hold them till the glue goes off

Clear on the top will make it look awesome, you could also stain every second strip a little for that 50's style, hmm ok im dreaming again, lol.

Not sure how it will handle but im having nice images of how it will look

the build update -- on friday and today I got the deck stripping finished - it was slow going waiting for glue to go off between strips the cold and no doubt the moisture in the air doesn't help PVA cure
while waiting I did a bit of sanding on the deck away from the slow drying glue and it does look to be coming up pretty good

any way I removed all the staples from the deck and lifted it off the forms it seamed a little flexy around the middle where I left a hole from strip ( where I had to cut out for the cockpit )
So I've now fitted the surface where the coaming goes around the cockpit this should add a bit of strength as my plan is to host that up out of the way in my shed so as to attack the hull ( sanding and glassing )



cutting a bigger hole for the coaming panel







and a few shots of the panel glued in place -- this will need the cockpit hole cut bigger and thw coaming fitted

going fishing tomorrow so the kayak build will have to wait

That's looking fantastic cheater, when do you think it will be finished?