Ta-Da!

Still a few things to do, but I was able to kayak the whole lake on Saturday, July 9th. I will put a spar varnish on it yet and also pour epoxy in the bow and stern ends of the kayak for more strength.

Finishing the Coaming

I created the coaming lip in two halves with 3 strips each of 1/16" thick oak and black walnut at about 3/8" width. I would glue on a strip and let it dry and then repeat. I was able to finish in a day. When it came to fiberglassing the coaming lip.... that's another story. I worked like very hard on getting the glass to lay around the lip on the outside, but I had bubbling problems like crazy. I ended up removing the fiberglass cloth and just coating with the epoxy resin. I will coat it a few times and test the strength and waterproof ability and then decide on what to do.

Joining the Hull and the Deck

Merging the top and bottom of the kayak was interesting. I started from the bow and worked back to the stern. I used a good packing tape with fibers to hold it together. I was not able to get the stern end out far enough to match, but was able to plane down the deck to meet after I glassed the inside seam. Rolling the fiberglass cloth that was pre-rolled with the epoxy mix was not too bad until the very end of the kayak, then the fibers kept attaching to the brush-on-a-stick.

Glassing the Hull Inside

I trimmed off the excess wood strips from the bottom of the cockpit coaming. I left a little ridge between the deck and the coaming, but I should have sanded right to the deck because the ridge left air bubbles when I glassed it. Fiberglassing the inside of the hull was a real challenge. I faced a lot of air bubbles, and the bow and stern where very hard to wet in. I was somewhat frustrated at the end of the session, which took about 3 hours, but when I came back to it later, it didn't look as bad as I thought. Plus, much will be in areas you'll never see when all said and done.

Glassing the Cockpit and Fill Coat the Deck

I wanted to start the outside of the cockpit to add strength to it, as I found it to be a little loose when sanding. After the outside of the deck is completely dried, I will start sanding and trimming the length of the wood strips at the bottom, so that I can glass the inside of the cockpit. You can see a little amine blush on the edges of the cockpit where I taped it off. I washed it down with warm water, let dry, then added the fill coat. Everything covered very well and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Removing forms and building the cockpit

Earlier this week I got brave and removed the forms from the hull. Surprisingly, they came out quite easy. The stern piece was lodged in pretty good, but with a little patience and wiggling, it came out fine. When creating the coaming for the cockpit, I needed to stay focused on keeping the strips vertical. There were a few areas where the strips started to get a tilt to them, so I would start in a different area of the cockpit and when they met up, I would put a wedge piece to finish. The glue gun was a life-saver in keeping the pieces in place.

The Big Day

Today was quite productive. I put a second coat of fiberglass cloth on the keel, bow and stern of the kayak. I taped off exactly where I wanted it to cover and used a roller, sponge paintbrush and a squeegee to lay down the epoxy. It is much tougher to cover a second layer of glass, so you have to be persistent on wetting it in. Also note how I finished the ends of the kayak, by folding over the fiberglass wetting it down and folding the other way. It worked, but I don't know if it was the best solution. I then went on to fiberglass the bottom of the deck. I ran out of fiberglass from my roll, but had enough pieces to cover it. I'll need to buy more fiberglass to finish the inside of the hull and the cockpit. I then used an exacto to cut next to the tape and remove the excess fiberglass and tape. After that I applied my first fill coat to the kayak. It is amazing to see the difference that makes to the look of your kayak!! It was a very exciting day... now I can start thinking about the cockpit and removing the forms from the hull.