Second coat

managed to get an early shift at work today, so i could make it out and buy some more varnish and give the kayak a second coating.

this picture is before i put it on, the first coat of varnish made the skin more transparent than i'd like, and it isn't quite as tight as it was when i skinned it, but it is a lot stiffer, and there were some water beads on it from the rain today so the skin seems waterproof already.



the seam down the middle still looks good, it's more or less straight, and it's narrow and flat.



and, after a second coat of varnish:



overall, i think it looks fantastic, but i'm definetly going to slap a coat of paint on it as the skin is nearly completely transparent.

Skinning and coating!

as you've noticed by now, i don't own my own camera... so unfortunately no pictures of this important and exciting part of the build :<
i will upload pictures when i go out during this week though.

i went out saturday morning, and went to the boat shop, and spoke to the guy there, he figured normal boat varnish should do it, he wasn't sure it would stick to the cloth, but i'm feeling positive. :P
i got one can that's supposed to last something like 14-15 square meters.

i started putting the skin on around 3pm.

at 9 i had stiched up the middle, and twice around the coaming.

i went up the next morning and spent an hour stiching all along the middle seam once more to reinforce it and around the coaming once more (doing the coaming with the dental floss too because i don't have a needle big enough for my lashing thread).

for the stretching, i made a pocket in one end, and pulled all i could on the other end, and marked how far it went, made another pocket there, and pulled it over the end, then i streched it sideways by sewing a large zig-zag pattern and tightening it a couple of times.

then i streched a thread of my lashing material from one end to the other and back, so i had two threads, i cut off the cloth about 5cm past the middle line, and then tucked the cloth in between the lines, and then i started sowing in one end, under the lines, to the masik, and then doing the same from the back end to the back rest.

i didn't have any nails to strech he coaming with, so it's not quite as tight as it could be, but i'd say it's tight enough.

and then i started applying the varnish, using a wide brush, i started with the seams and coaming, applying as much as i could, then did thetop side, and when i flipped it over i realised i'd used half the can of varnish... so in the end, when i ran out of varnish i still hadn't coated the sides, from the chines up to the gunwhales, and the shop i bought the varnish in isn't open on sundays.

luckily the other shop in town was open, so i bought a can of varnish there, though it's a different brand, and likely a different type, but nothing i can do about it, so i just painted it on the last bits, overlapping with the first varnish a bit, and i hope it will work out well.

so hopefully i can trade a couple of evening shifts this week to some earlier shifts so i can go out and put two more coats of varnish on it, and if all goes well i'm hoping to go for a paddle on saturday! :D

pictures!

ok, went a while without access to a camera there, but now i finally managed it. :P

I made the coaming, with a flange all the way around:



it doesn't look too good in the back, but I'll smooth it over when i finish it, i had to put an extra piece of wood on there to hold it together that I'm planning on removing when i stich it together.

The finished frame:




and i think the masik is strong enough even though i cut it out of a straight piece instead of the curved one:


next weekend: skinning! :D

Frame Finished!

I went out last night and put on the forward deck stringer, which means the frame is officially finished.

Work still needing to be done:
Oiling the frame (possibly twice)
Bending the coaming (the ring that will be around my waist)
Sewing on the skin.
Painting the skin to waterproof it.

I will upload some pictures of the finished frame next friday when i go out to oil it.

evening work

I went out again yesterday after work, picked up some more wood on the way, and cut the masik out of a 12x5 cm plank of fir.
It's not as strong as it could be, but it's strong enough for me to be able to stand on it without problems.

I also made the deck ridges behind me and cut the one's in front of me to lenght, but didn't have time to finish them, though I'm considering going out and doing that today so I have the frame finished.

no pictures unfortunately :P

Day 7 and 8

Kind of a slow annoying weekend...

I went out saturday, and made the two arched deck beams with no problems, then I started on the masik with the large curved piece of lumber I'd found.



I've reached the conclusion that it is probably easier to do that with a bandsaw, and that it's practically impossible with a handsaw, as i spent 3 hours working on it, making kerfs and hacking the wood off, and didn't get a proper flat surface, and in the end I think I took too much off it in some places and decided to give up on it.

then I tried putting the skin over the kayak, to make sure it fit.
I clamped it in one end, and pulled it over the kayak, and about 70 cm before reaching the other end the cloth ended...



I've mailed the guy I bought it off and he will send me a new piece on thursday, so it should get here before easter.

Sunday I was planning on getting the plank I intended to make into a second paddle, and use a piece of that for the masik, but when I went out to the hallway where I had it, it was missing...
Apparently someone stole a 2m plank of wood with half of one side chipped off...
And of course the lumberyard is closed on sundays, so I couldn't go buy a new piece either.

In the end I settled for oiling the frame with raw linseed oil and going home.

I went out Sunday, and had a bit of trouble, because i forgot to bring the book.
however, I've read most of it a few times now, and read lots of other blogs, so i forged on.

I messed up the first stem piece I tried I messed up, because I forgot that it had to go all the way to the top of the gunwales, but i could use the piece to make the other stempiece so in the end i got two functional pieces.





I clamped the keel on, and started lashing it.
as i didn't have the book i didn't use the exact lashing method he suggests, and i used a thread that wasn't completely flat (1,4mm thick polyester building line).
but the lashing went fast and painless, there was one point on one chine when i needed fairing blocks on 3 ribs in a row, but apart from that it was no problems.





I also made one of the little blocks that tie together the stemplate and gunwhales, but didn't have time to do the other.




all in all, I think I got a good days work done.



EDIT: Picked upp the cloth at the post office too!