2011 "Vinaccia" Black Pearl, Ontario

Another Black Pearl is leaving the shop this weekend!  AND, it’s an international order to boot.   Over the summer I was commissioned to build it by a customer from Ottawa, Ontario.   I finished work on it this weekend.  He’s driving over on Sunday to pick it up.

Full details and pictures taken during and after the build will be found on the project’s page in the portfolio.

The Design

It is a Bjorn Thommason Design “Black Pearl” that was custom sized to my customer.  For those who are not familiar with it:

The Black Pearl is a long, low and narrow kayak of East Greenland ancestry – extremely easily handled, instantly reacting to shift of weight, leaning etc, and with enough secondary stability to support leaned turns, balance brace and such. It is very easily rolled. Designed by Björn Thomasson Design, Lund, Sweden.

It’s a fantastic, elegant design.

Other Details About the Project

The kayak was built using a solid core of northern white cedar.   The inside of the cockpit area was laminated with carbon fiber (5.5oz 3Kw twill weave). The remainder was ‘glassed with layers of high strength S-2 fiberglass.  A tight weave glass was used to save weight (less epoxy usage).  It was laminated with Ecopoxy resin and clear hardener.  The resin is partially derived from beans and nuts instead of petroleum.  The outside will be painted in durable automotive urethane.  The color is a vintage Ferrari color called “Vinaccia.”

In addition to the cockpit interior, most of the other pieces of the kayak will be crafted from carbon fiber.  The hatches will be black plastic screw-in Beckson deck plates sitting in carbn recesses.  The cockpit coaming is carbon fiber as well.

This was the first build I documented on Facebook and it received an amazing amount of positive comments.

• FB: Dan Caouette
• FB Album: 2011 “Vinaccia” Black Pearl – Completed
• FB Album: 2011 “Vinaccia” Black Pearl – Completed
• FB Group: Black Pearl 

Final weight: 33.5 pounds (15.2 kg)

Björn Thommason, the designer of the fabulous Black Pearl sea kayak, recently posted a short article on his website promoting my current build. The original is in Swedish. He has yet to post his usual English translation.  The Google Translate version is quite clear (which is actually scary).  Not sure what “Dancing construction methodology” or “Scuba” was supposed to be… (Th 1/5/12: His English version is up… Google was pretty close

http://www.thomassondesign.com/nyheter/inspirerande-black-pearl-bygge

On the project I’ve tried some new (?) methods to improve the build quality and speed construction.  I did it mostly for my customer so he could watch his Black Pearl being built.  I hope other home builders have found it useful.  During previous builds I usually post weekly updates to this website.  Due to time constraints I didn’t have the time to do such for this one, so I used my Facebook account.  It has been beyond successful.  I have received at least 10 times the feedback I used to get.  So in the future I plan to use both.

Inspiring Black Pearl-building

January 3, 2012 ( Black Pearl , CSFW , Scuba ), 0 comments

Dan Caouette with CSFW is underway with an exciting new Black Pearl building – this time for a customer in Canada.

Dan Caouette: “Over the weekend I started a new project in the shop. It’s a design called the” Black Pearl “. It’s a world-renown high-performance sea kayak designed by Bjorn Thomasson in Sweden. I built three of Them in 2007 and helped launch the shop. This one is for a customer in Ottawa, Ontario. ”

The building is well documented with lots of good pictures, as well shows Dancing construction methodology – but above all, a lot of exciting solutions, which might inspire even better kayak-building at home.

There are discussions about the project on Dance Facebook page , but also on the Kayak Building Forum.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the website.  I AM still alive.  The shop IS still active and busier than ever.  2011 was a heck of a year…

In the spring I finished designing and building my 5 year old daughter a new, higher performance kayak the “Pink Jaguar” SEA-12.  There are a few pictures of it in it’s gallery.  I also designed and built my father-in-law a new solo canoe as a retirement present from the NHDOT.  The below link will take you to my personal Facebook site where I have a few pictures.  I’ll create a page in the Portfolio here shortly.  It’s has a white cedar, western redcedar and pine hull with solid black cherry trim.  I’ll be making plans available for it shortly.

via 2011 Welsh Brook 13 Solo Canoe (Facebook album). Updated about 2 months ago.

I’m also in the final stages of building a BTD Black Pearl for a customer in Ontario, Canada.  It is simply stunning. For a preview check out the FB album.

More posts will follow in the days to come.

Sorry I’ve been gone so long.

Last month my office at the NHDOT commissioned me to build some wooden clocks for a few gentlemen who were retiring.  I knew the guys quite well so I did it at material cost only.  I had less than two weeks to design the clocks, order the materials and build them.  They came out great and the guys were thrilled.

I’m currently working on the finishing touches of Lena’s new SOF kayak.  It’s a SOF version of the SEA-12 we co-designed with Jonathan Rose.  He’ll be building the full-size SEA-15 strip version later this year.  It was her birthday present from Mom and I.  It’s almost done and should be quite the little rocket.  I’ll post pictures and full details when I’m done.

The biggest occupier of my time has been designing and building the sets/props for my wife’s theater company (Colonel Town Players in Lancaster, NH).  We’re putting on the hilarious musical “Once Upon A Mattress.”  It’s the real story of the Princes and the Pea.  Christine gets to be Princes Winniefred, a role she’s dreamed of playing.  Oh yeah… I’m her Prince Dauntless…

Show dates: 4/8, 4/9, 4/15 and 4/16/2011

Scott rolling the "Neytiri" Night Heron

Scott recently launched the “Neytiri” Hybrid Night Heron… in a local pool.  Oh well.  It IS winter in New England.  He posted a few videos on his blog. Below is an except:

I finally got Neytiri over to water today – too bad it was chlorinated instead of salty!!  However, since the water temps in Long Island sound hover in the 30′s right now, maybe this was a good thing!!

Any kayaker with a new boat knows that there comes a time when you just have to know – can I roll it or not?  Very important question that begs an even MORE important answer – and in my case with Neytiri – a big YES!  A major relief for me – as I intend to put myself into situations on the water when things are going to get a bit out of control and I will flip over, so getting back to good old breathable air will be imporant!

Now, I haven’t rolled a boat in many months, so this weak looking “angel or butterfly” roll isn’t very impressive, but it does mean that as I start to practice more then my roll will get that much more solid.  So DAN, good job and will ensure I drink a sip of single malt tonight to celebrate.  Thanks!