kayak

October 2020 to June 2021

kayak design is the “Rob Roy”, this set of plans was developed by Platt Monfort of Geodesic Aerolite Boats. the boat has a wooden frame and is reinforced with kevlar roving and covered with aircraft dacron. this project was 9 months of meditation.

strongback and steam box on custom sawhorses

frames, molds, and bulkheads mounted to the strongback

stringers cut and ready to install

first step in the project was prepping the garage. I built a flat cover for the grease pit in the floor, installed lots of lighting, built 2 sawhorses at a comfortable working height, built the strongback and a steambox. next, cut out the frames, molds and bulkheads from 1/8 inch plywood, mount the frames, molds, and bulkhead to the strongback. rip and sand the stringers from a 16 foot plank of hemlock.

installing the stringers

stringers in place on the frames and bulkheads

stringers glued to the stem

soaking the oak ribs

ribs in the steambox

gluing in the ribs

hull framing nearly finished

stringers installed into the frames and over the molds, glued into place, trimmed to the stem and stern. soaked the ribs, steamed them and bent them into place, holding them with clamps. once dry, glued to the stringers.

kevlar roving installed

deck framing nearly finished

gluing in the floorboards

fitting the riser to the deck

gluing up the coaming

removed the molds, installed knees in the cockpit, stretched the kevlar roving, installed deck framing, glued in floorboards, cut out and glued in the cockpit deck, riser, and coaming

laying on the dacron

finishing the hull dacron. shrinks with heat from an iron.

hull dacron installed

all dacron installed

finished with 3 coats of water based urethane

I found the least yellowing finish I could

attached the dacron cloth with heat and bond tape, shrunk it into place with an iron, covered the deck, installed rubrails, sealed with 3 coats of polyurethane clear topcoat.