Building a seakayak - page 1
After having rowing a seakayak for a couple of years I started up in the summer of 2006 constructing my own kayak
MY kayak project
In august 2006 I commenced constructing my own kayak. I had up to this time been rowing kayak for a couple of years
and thought I was ready for a summer project. I started to surch for a kayak-design. It should be fast,
easy to manouvre, good for touring and as well fun to row (surf og roll). I browsed the internet and fell in love with the
design of Nick Shades. Especially the Night Heron looked exciting, but was unfortunatly a bit too long for my garage. So I chosed
the 1' shorter design - the Petrel. It's a strip built kayak lined with fiber glas externally as well og internally so you end
up with a sandwich construction very stiff and leight. Low weight and high stifness are keywords for a good handling and respons.
As core material I chosed the north amarivcan Western Red Ceder. It is a leight and strong material, very homogenious and
nearly no ?? with a redish colour.
There are 3 fundamental different methods of building a kayak:
- Skin on frame (SOF) which is the old method for the Greenland and Aluth kayaks
- Stitched pieces og plywood (stitch and glue)
- Stripbuilt, which is the method of my choice
- Resently a fourth method has turned up: GSOF - which is glasfiber on top of a SOF
A strip built kayak project can be divided into the following steps:
- Building a form
- carving the strips and profiling the strips
- Fixing the strips (building the boat)
- Glass fiber/epoxy lining
- Fixing of hatches, seat and deck-fittings
- End varnishing
Below pictures are attached taken during the building with building notes
July 2006It starts with the construction of a building jig. This is done by cutting a form for each
foot of the length of the boat and fit these to a strongback - a long going girder.
July 2006Here the forms are erected on the strongback
August 2006Now it's time to cut the strips. The strips are 6x20 mm and 3-3,5 meters long.
The strips are then profiled with bed and cove at each side. It's a big job doing.
Approx 330 m of strips are required. The wood used should be leigth, homogenious and no knots. I have mostly used
north American Western Red Cedar, but also ash and mahogny.
September 2006Time for the strips to be mounted on the jig. The first strip is the most important.
It is installed along the shearline, and the jig shall now be carefully aligned so the shearline gets a smooth run.
Oktober 2006The hull is now almost done. The strips are glued together using normal carpenters glue.
Frequently it is necessary to fix the the strips to the jig. This is done with stables or nails.
December 2006Now I am working on the front deck. I enclose a couple of thin strips of mahogny and ash
for making some pathern.
December 2006The front deck is finalised.
Januar 2007Here I have made some patern on the deck. The deck fitting is a trial. There are no limits,
so everything is allowede and shall be tested.
Januar 2007The rear deck is finalised. Here as well some pattern is done by using mahogny and ash.
