My new kayak!!!

Yay! I got my kayak frame from the Babcooks! They didn't have room for it at their new house so they gave it to me to complete. First of all, the kayak is a guillemont strip built kayak that is not finished. The strip building the art of placing thin strips of ceder around a frame.

This is what is all ready complete. The pattern has been placed on the plywood and then cut out, these cutout shapes become the frame for the kayak, and the shapes have been secured to the 2+4 so I am ready to start placing the strips on the frame.

These are glued as you go and held together with lots of clamps. After that is done, I need to do the fairing, which is simply smoothing the blocky hull with a plain.

I put this pic up because Graydon didn't know what a plain was when I told him, so this pic is for all those dingle-dorfs out there  who don't know what a plain is.

Then I need to put on the fiber glass. The fiberglass will be placed on both the inside and the outside to provide the strength that the weak ceder strips need, like an I-beam.     

 

I must be careful not to mess up, that fiberglass stuff is expensive, I will need to make sure that it is very smooth.

Then I will apply the resin and hardener to the fiberglass, and I need to make sure there are no bubbles under the fiberglass. I also need a chemical mask and rubber gloves, because that resin is very toxic and can damage my lungs.

Once  the resin has been applied to the outside, then I will do same on the inside and be done the hull, then I can start on the deck.

Now I need to work on the cockpit, combing, hatches and shock cord. It can be very intimidating cutting into the finished hull with a scroll saw; one slip and it could ruin the hole boat. (but I haven't heard of that happening to anyone yet.) And now it is time to put the two halves together.

And done.  This is probably what mine will look like.

But keep in mind that there are a million steps in between all the big steps and the whole kayak could take me three or or four months To fully complete. However, the final product can be very beautiful. Here's an example. (above)

Someday I would like to build a canoe as well.

I will keep you posted on my progress on the kayak. I figure it will cost me 400 to 500 dollars to complete. donations are greedily, I mean, gratefully accepted.

God bless 

Jonathan L.