Page 11 - I Finished Stripping!

Next Comes the Cockpit

It's getting harder and harder to find the time to work on the boat. We're in the home stretch at school and there are a ton of things to get done. I thought I was going to make a lot of progress during Spring Break, but we went camping instead. No regrets - it was great!

Anyway, somehow I've managed to finish stripping. Here is a picture: (I'm not sure what all the spots are???)

This shows the different woods, as well as the cockpit hole. This is looking back from the bow. The light strip in the center of the top, and on the shear line, is spruce. On both sides of it are narrow strips of walnut. The rest of the hull is redwood, although I bought it from two different sources. I bought 3/4" thick boards from Hayward Lumber that turned out to be darker and stiffer (older growth?). I also bought some boards from Home Depot, which turned out to be not as thick (5/8"?). Since I ripped the boards to make the strips, it meant that the Hayward Lumber strips are 1/4" x 3/4", while the Home Depot strips are 1/4 x 5/8"(?). The Home Depot strips are also lighter in color. The two light areas coming forward from the sides of the cockpit are Home Depot strips.
Since the strips are not crucial structurally - the strength will come from the fiberglass inside and out - I don't think the difference in strips will matter. If the wood was the crucial factor in the structural integrity of the boat I might have gone with only Hayward Lumber strips because they seem stronger. However, since the strength of the wood doesn't matter so much, I'm thinking that the light Home Depot strips might even be a plus, because the topside of the boat will end up being just a little lighter. It's good to have your weight low in a kayak to increase stability.

If you look up on the wall to the left, you can see my other shop assistant who spends a lot of time with me in the garage - George the cat!

This is the other side of the bow. I added the blue masking tape when I was starting the deck. There was a spot where the original masking tape on the top strip of the hull was worn, and I wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally glue the two halves together. I've got to get them apart eventually to take the forms out! After I looked at this picture I noticed that the blue tape was unsightly, so I pulled it off. It won't be in the next round of pictures!

There's still a ton of work to go. My original pledge to Aileen to have the boat in the water by summer is looking a little shaky. (Although, if it's in the water the day before the first official day of autumn, technically it's in the water by summer, isn't it?)

Here are some of the things I still have to do:

build the cockpit recess (more on that below)
build the cockpit rim and coaming
fair the boat - plane, scrape, and sand the inside and outside surfaces until they're smooth enough to look good, and also to allow the fiberglass to lay flat without bubbles.
add an ash rub strip to the stems in the bow and stern.
add an ash coaming lip
fiberglass inside and out, including an extra layer in the cockpit, and extra layer on the bottom, and extra glass on the bow and stern stems.
build up the coaming with dookie schmutz (epoxy mixed with wood flour and maybe some cam-o-sil) and extra glass
make and install 2 bulkheads
cut hatches and construct flush hatches by making hatch recesses
join the deck and hull with two layers of fiberglass tape, inside and out
install foot braces (and maybe a rudder?)
build and install cheek plates
install some kind of seat back (maybe homemade?)
build a seat and install it
install deck rigging
do end pours
install grab toggles front and rear

It sounds like a lot, and I think it really will be - particularly the sanding, scraping, and planing. Luckily I have a good random orbital sander. However, I think the process of stripping the boat is a major hurdle, and I'm glad to have finished it.

Here's a picture that shows how the strips weave together as the ends narrow. Each strip has to be cut diagonally. Then a cove has to be put on the diagonal with a hand plane. It all has to fit perfectly with no gaps (that's the idea, anyway. Actually I have plenty of gaps, but I did get a lot better at it as I went along. The gaps that remain will be filled with dookie schmutz. It will be "unsightly", but plenty strong.) Making the strips fit well was a big time consumer.

I cut the hole for the cockpit. However, I'm putting in a cockpit recess. It's hard to explain.

Check out this picture:

You may be saying, "Wait a minute! You just cut out the cockpit and now you're closing it up again? Are you crazy?" Well, maybe so, but not because of this. After these strips are installed, you cut out the "real" hole for the cockpit. You end up with the coaming a little lower to the water, and without quite as much bend (which will be good because I have to bend strips of ash for the coaming lip, so the less bend the better.) It also looks cool. If this is confusing, wait until I finish. A picture will clear up the mystery.

As you work your way around the cockpit, the strips don't have to go all the way across, since you're going to be cutting a hole anyway. (You can see a light pencil mark which indicates about where the hole will be cut on the left side.)

The strips that don't go all the way across have to be held in place until the glue dries. The book recommends using tape. I tried that and it worked okay, but didn't hold the strips as snugly as I liked. There was a little movement when I took my hand away, and the strips weren't 100% snug with each other. Then I remembered a trick from the Kayak Builder's Bulletin Board. I used a heat gun to speed up the setting of the glue. It's just regular Titebond wood glue. Using the heat gun, it's almost like hot-melt glue. It sets up enough to hold the strip in place after only a minute or so.

Here's a picture taken from down low. I just thought it would be interesting.

Okay, that's it for now. When I finish the cockpit recess I'll take some more pictures.

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