Some questioned what had become of my milling equipment. Well, it's not metal either, but I did use my mill to carve my joints for this project.



The plans were purchased from Kudzu Craft and glued to the marine plywood.



This shows the scarfed, planed and sized stringers made from Western Red Cedar decking.



This is the loose skeleton held together with bungee cord. Allows for a "dry fit" and adjust as the kayak comes together.



Here it is after some lashing. No I didn't "whip it into shape". I used synthetic sinew to tie it all together. There is no glue or screws holding the stringers to the frame members.



Here's the bent wood portion of the post. Yes, these are most of my vices. My other big vice is airguns.



Here's the cockpit combing made from thin strips of Cyprus, steam bent to shape. and held with Titebond.



At this stage I thought about just hanging it from the ceiling as ART. Alas, I didn't buy all that polyester to make disco shirts.



Here's where that Home Economics class in 7th grade comes in. A little hand sewing with dental floss pulls it together, then some burgundy upholstery thread to raise a standing seam with a little crossing stitch accent.



Pulled nice and tight, sewed to the combing and heat shrunk to pull any wrinkles. Followed by a urethane, semi-translucent garage floor paint to seal the fabric.



The mottled pattern is intentional, looks like a seal skin coat.


Here's that standing seam.


The bow is a traditional design that may be incorporated to keep the bow from diving into an oncoming wave.



The wood still gets a peek from this view point.



The total weight with seat, foot pegs, and flotation bags weighed 45 lbs. It got a lot of attention this past Saturday at the Battle on the Bayou. I completed the 9.4 mile race in 2h19m for a 80th out of 173 boats competing. Hey, it's top half in a boat I made. I'm really pleased, and had a lot of fun, start to finish.

Kent

Kent,

You just knew that seminar on sutures would come in handy didn't you.

Nice kayak! The guitar builders like the Titebond too. I've seen steam bending used to build boats and guitars. I've always wanted to try it. Since it seems you researched it, did the natives seal the seal skin with wax or oil, or was it water tight as is?

We'll give you a little more time on the custom bigbore since we see you've been busy.

Lon

Very impressive!

It's a shame that all that fine woodwork has to be hidden behind the fabric. It's too bad there isn't some way you could cover with something transparent so that the structure could show through. I don't suppose a traditional wood frame kayak with a heat-shrink mylar shell would be all that traditional, would it?

You joke about hanging it from the roof at art, but in reality there are wood-frame kayaks out there in exactly that position. My wife used to work at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, and one of the permanent art exhibits in the lobby of their main annex building looks a LOT like what you built in your garage. Nice work!

Hey Lon,
They waxed everything to keep the saltwater from attacking and to seal seal seams. On this one I used waxed dacron "artificial sinew" and coated it all with "Teak Oil" which contained Tung and Lidseed oil mix. My steam bending consisted of using a wet rag on the wood as I bent it around the form. I would run a hot hobby iron on the rag and this steamed the wood into position. Did it sans glue, one strip at a time to get the wood to form. Then remove and add the glue and replace the wood and clamps. Let it set overnight then put the next strip on. The combing has a lip for a skirt. This was formed with 3/8in strips on top of the 1 3/4 in "base" strips.

Hey rotor,

Some actually do sew up a clear plastic kayak over a wood frame. It sounds cool, but isn't as tough and when actually used you have all the bags, water bottles, pumps, sponge, clothes etc showing thru anyway. Not so cool. Would you live in a glass house?.. Neat as a display item I'm sure. If I get tired of this skin, I can strip it off and try a different color/ or even solid paint color with decorations. It would take a week to redo.

Thanks for the kudo's guys,

Kent

That's a work of art Kent! Well done!

That's a long, complex project. It turned out great. I'll bet that did turn heads on the water. Did you get a bunch of orders for them? Might be something to fall back on ya know. . Two of them would only take three times as long!

You're gonna need a bigger barn soon. It's starting to look like the air and space museum with a nautical twist.

Thanks for posting thats really beautiful. Don't let PETA see that Faux Seal skin or they'll be circling you in rubber rafts with bullhorns.

Excellent job!

Gary

Had to edit ( "that's really" - came out "negate" ). And - workof - as in work of art ... It had no clue. Haha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2012 02:38PM by barnespneumatic.

Great project Kent! You really do Kayaks well!

Hi Kent.
I was looking at this again. Great work. That's something to be proud of.

Before I started making airguns, I had become very interested in wooden boats.

How do you get in these without rolling them over? I sort of picture myself sitting there, with the sky and water in reversed positions.

Gary

Don't worry Gary. Kayaks are just like floatplanes in that respect...they're perfectly stable.

As long as they're inverted.

VERY NI(CE, i love kayaking and that is a fine kayak. Would love to cruise the weeki wachee river in that.

Awesome Kayak! That must have taken quite a bit of time to complete.

That's amazing Kent. I'm not only amazed at the work but also by how light it is. Never would have guessed 45 lbs.

hi , thats a total work of art , its far to nice to get wet , i like the wave busting bow design , its interesting to see that there are few new ideas , just new ways to use old ideas.
your stitching looks great too , nice and even and straigh.
all in all a job to be very proud of , thanks for showing the pics.