Work from 6/24/2008 through 7/13/2008

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I wanted to do as much work on the inside as I can before I join the deck to the hull.  You’ve already read about the hatches, deck fittings, cockpit, paddle park and the seat/rear bulkhead.  The things left to install are the forward bulkhead, interior tie-offs, some uni-carbon fiber in strategic locations and the finish coats.  Then I could tape the seam on the inside and outside. Working through the cockpit opening and hatches taping the inside is one the least pleasant parts of the whole process but it’s so rewarding knowing the boat is coming together…

The forward bulkhead was built according to our standard method.  It’s simply wood strips (Northern White Cedar in this case) left over from stripping the deck/hull glued together as a flat panel.  Then each side of the panel is sanded and laminated with a layer of 4 oz glass.  It gets fitted and is bonded to the hull with a fillet of epoxy and a layer of glass cloth.  It’s spaced so that the toes of the paddler are 3-4 inches away from the bulkhead. It’ll get padded out later with minicell foam.

My customer carries specific dry-bags in his holds.  He requested some pad-eyes to lash them down.  He also wanted to carry his hand pump in his cockpit.  We found a nice spot at the sheer and installed pad-eyes and a hook.  All are custom made from carbon fiber.

I added longitudinal strips of carbon fiber tape to the deck and the hull in areas of high stress.  For the maximum strength instead of being woven like fabric the tape is unidirectional strands held with a few transverse fibers on one side.  I bought mine through Soller Composites in NH.

While I had the boat opened up still I applied most of the finish coat on the inside.  The entire inside received two coats of white graphite.  I taped off 1″ of the deck at the sheer for the hull reinforcement to lap onto.

Time to turn the two parts into a usable kayak.  I thickened up some epoxy with cabosil, stuffed it into a plastic baggie, clipped a corner and squeezed a bead onto the edge of both the deck and the hull.  I held seams tight with simple lengths of fiber-reinforced packing tape.  No ratchet straps or fancy clamping schemes.  A good fitting seam should pull tight together on it’s own.

I then turned the boat onto the starboard side and taped one inside seam.  I left the Zylon reinforcing run about an inch long creating a flap on the inside.  I used this flap to bond the deck to the hull.  It was a bit stiff and didn’t want to lay flat on it’s own, so I made some miniature sand bags using Zip-lock baggies and clean play sand.  Each one weighed about a pound.  Covered the seam with some plastic wrap and then laid them end to end the entire length of the seam.  The next morning I did the interior port seam.  The interior seam received a finish coat of white graphite like the remainder of the interior.

That afternoon I pulled the tape on the outside, and sanded the exterior joint smooth and two inches on either side of it.  I filled any gaps in the seam with thickened epoxy and then taped the outside seam with bias-cut strips of fiberglass cloth.  The first layer was a 2″ wide strip of 4 oz S-2 glass.  The second was a 3″ wide layer of tight-woven 3.25 oz E glass.  When cured it was sanded lightly and a fill coat of tinted epoxy was applied….

We now have a usable sea kayak.  A bit rough looking, but usable…

Total Construction Time for Final Interior Work and Joining: 14.50 Hours