Not much to report on I’m afraid. We took last weekend off to enjoy a trip to the mountains. Here are a few photos to get the idea of the place.

Before the afternoon snow.

Very effective fireplace. Oak left hardly any ash.

Old cabin window

Old porch.

Marriage of old & new cabins. Well done.

Kept the fireplace going non-stop. Did some target practice. Ate too much and had a morning hike (too short to offset the good food).

House chores have slowed progress this weekend. I did manage to carve out a pair of toggles for lifting the boat bow & stern. I had laminated scraps from the build thus far with carpenters glue.

Toggles blocked out for planing.

Laminations are of Mahogany, Yellow Pine and western Red Cedar. Holes were drilled on the press prior to any shaping. I’ve become a great fan of planes. They make quick work, no dust and eliminate sanding for the most part.

Filed recess for the line.

After a slot was chiseled, the round file got us close for a slight recess. Sandpaper wrapped around the file did the rest.

Shaped and ready for varnish.

These are no great design, but are an evolution from the 2 previous sets I did for the SOF yaks. Simple, handy, and functional.

with 2 coats of varnish

These will be the colors in the kayak. Used Petit’s Z-Spar gloss varnish. I don’t know if it is still true, but I’ve always thought gloss is harder than satin. I’ll let this 2nd coat harden and put a final coat on later.
Otherwise, I hope to try some epoxy & glass on the 2 bulkheads I glued up previously. the temps are not likely to be warm enough for glassing the hull anytime soon. I may consider making some sort of plastic tent over the boat to trap heat from an oil filled radiator heater. I want to get on with this project. Spring and sailing is coming!

PS: yes that is apencil line across one toggle. I don’t mind a bit of the hand left in the construction. Like the nail holes, I see it as “character”. I’m not looking to have a piece of furniture though I’m sure that 1st scratch will hurt.

You can’t blame everything on your parents, but this one thing I am certain I can: my love of “messing about in boats”. Early memories evoke summer evenings at age 3 or 4 lying in the bottom of a small sloop as she slid across the Lafayette River. The warm sea air, the sparkling reflection s of shore lights, and perhaps most infectious, the hypnotic movement of a vessel on the water. This all conspired to lure me in.

Fast forward many years and countless such evenings, I now find myself these recent evenings in a cluttered garage 100 miles from the ocean. The purpose? To dream childhood memories and build a boat. Not just any boat (certainly not an Ark), but one of the 3 boats this “sailor” has concluded fit his boating needs. They are an 18′ touring kayak called an Outer-Island, a small 14′ sailing skiff named the Melonseed, and 25′ keelboat known as the Nordic Folkboat. I’ve no illusions of building the latter and have whiled away hours staring at the skiff. However, I have finally put strips to forms for my kayak.

How long will it take? A guess would only be that. Others have approximated 300-400 hours. that alone intimidates. Where does it come from? Do you include the unrecorded hours of investigation, correspondence, gathering of tools and materials, and the dreaming? Surely not, but nonetheless, I have begun to record the actual build time. It all makes no sense … unless you are a romantic, and I was hooked as a baby boy.

So, enough of the “why”. I don’t have an answer, don’t want to be a writer (much less a poet), but I do desire to record my progress and process in hopes that it will force a finish and paddle up some river or across a small bay. I too feel some indebtedness to the many folks who educated me regarding this build and to those who’ve kept me from drowning early on.

30 hours. That’s actual cobbling pieces together for you accountants (who aren’t likely to be so touched as to build a boat). I’m nuts and am going to do this contrary to notions of being reasonable. After all the studying, the learning begins. And so, as I continue to figure things out, … this … is … a start.

This evening I spent about an hour shaping the outer bow stem. I had hoped to have done so yesterday prior to the Superbowl, but the epoxy between the laminations was not setting. Oddly enough it wasn’t until I took this shot tonight that I realized … I HAVE A BOAT! So, with a little help I popped the hull off the forms. Nothing cracked. She weighs 18 lbs 8 oz. This is prior to any scraping of the interior or sanding at all. I expect to lose a few pounds still (from the boat that is).

I am absolutely thrilled. This is cause for celebration. The last pic speaks for itself. Cheers!

Starboard bow

Interior looking aft

Port stern quarter

Port bow. A beauty.

It’s a  Blue Moon!

Bulkhead #11

It is good to have different parts of the boat to work on as a diversion. The making of the selected bulkheads was quick and simple. Over waxed paper that protected a full scale form outline the varying strips were glued, clamped, and held with hot melt. While that sets another strip is cut and edge glued. Repeat until form outline is covered. Finally the clamps are removed and the whole is weighted on a flat surface for carpenters glue to cure.

Bulkheads 6 & 11 trimmed & scraped.

Bow with top cheater strip glued & clamped.

Once cured the hot melt is scraped off and the entire surface is planed smooth. Then the paper form is spray mounted to the bulkhead, trimmed close with a hand saw and finally hand planed to the paper outline. Yesterday I ordered 3 gallons of epoxy (Raka’s UV Inhibited). It claims to be ” second to none in its ability to resist blushing, UV breakdown, color change< white clouding and water spotting”. We will see. ” Also purchased was 32 yards of 4oz cloth and 50 yds of 2″ tape. While 2 gallons should be adequate, I did not want to be caught short … and at a 2:1 ratio of epoxy to hardener, smaller quantities were almost the same price (surprise).

These 2 bulkheads will serve as practice for glassing. Some use foam instead of hard
bulkheads. The theory being that a hard landing on a rock will be more forgiving as opposed to a potential shear point with a hard bulkhead. More people tend to use hard bulkheads and I do not intend to go white water kayaking in this touring boat.

Sometimes 1 clamp won’t do.  Last cheater in!

Added the 6 cheater strips to the bow. I now have the technique down. The 1st one on the stern took over 2 hrs and was poor at best. The last here took maybe 20 minutes and filled the taper quite well. The trick? Cut a strip a couple inches longer than the wedge to be filled. Make sure the grain is smooth and runs across and away from the pointy end. This eliminates the chance of cracking off part of the cheater (guess how I know. Twice!) Since the wedge is curved in reality you must take a half dozen measurements of the gap at roughly 3-4″ intervals and make them on the trim piece. Use a wood batten to connect these dots. Grab your sharp sturdy pocket knife to trim close to the line and finish with the plane. Test fit and plane some more. I left a slight bevel toward the inside of the hull. I think this allowed for some error in a spot no one is likely to ever see. Ah! one more thing: having a smooth board nearby and a chair to sit in as you address the work area makes all this more pleasant than arduous, well, at least eventually. It is all about learning.

Stern stem laminating.

Now for the outer stems. I chiseled a “chin” off the keel to accept two 1/8″ strips of mahogany and cherry laminations. Why both woods? Because that is what was in my scrap pile in the shed. The heat gun will allow for these strips to bend along the stem easily. Once the stem is planed and sanded square to the keel, thicken some epoxy and slather it on. Masking tape helps hold the strips in position for clamping. You must get good epoxy squeeze out, but don’t clamp so hard as to make the joint dry. Make sure the clamps remain in place. I left the garage for an hour and returned to see a clamp on the ground. This resulted in the joint opening in that one location. Fortunately it is small enough to be filled with dust & epoxy later.

Stem ready for shaping.

Shaped stem with hit of color.

After 3 laminations on the stem, I shaped with a plane while being careful to reference a pencilled center line so as not to remove too much wood. I had to spread a little mineral spirits on the result to get an idea of the final look. Fantastic! even with the nail holes, which again, I think I’ll leave.

Chin detail.

Nice saw joint on the chin. While I hate working with the yellow pine, it does look good here against the mahogany.
On to the bow stem … the lines don’t have this chin, so it should be easier. I’ll post a final pic on that. Now at the 80 hr mark and almost ready to sand. Snowing this morning so we’ll wait for better weather as I want to keep the dust outside.

Wide angle close up

I bought a $5 wide angle & macro lens for my iPhone and have played a little with it. Here is a wide angle shot followed by a macro and then a macro of a mini fish souvenir from sailing in Maine. Lens works well I’d say.

Macro: closer still

Macro: glass fish. 1/4″ tall.

Outer Island lines: low res

As the hull structure is near complete, I decided to find tasks to do while I wait for epoxy & glass to arrive. I’ll build the bulkheads with scrap strips from cut offs. These too will be glassed. To make things easy I will use forms at position 6 and 11 for templates. This will allow some leg stretching and small cockpit storage behind the seat. I’ve looked also at a simple “racing” stripe to adorn the deck. Deck hatches will be flush and circles as opposed to ovals or ready-made rubber hatches. Lastly, I may mock up the cockpit as it is a wee bit smaller than those on my SOF yaks.

Bukhead #11 glued up.

I set wax paper over a full scale print of the form, cut strips to appropriate length glued, clamped, hot melted, and repeated. Went quickly, 30 mins? After the last strip I removed the clamps and set some heavy weights on bulkhead as the carpenters glue set overnight.

I am now at 55 hrs worth of labor. 10 of those were spent in sawhorse & strongback building. I closed the keel joint last night. Except for a few cheater strips to add at the bow and laminating the outer stems, I have a hull! Like most new tasks this build started slow from the shear, but after hitting the waterline the strips just dropped in place with little additional planing. Again, my strips have an 8 degree bevel on one side. Most hand planing was approaching the twist and sweep of the ends near the stems. Some pics here for illustration:

Clamps of various sorts taming the strips. gaps are left for “cheater” strips.

This is a good view of the pine inner stem on the plywood bow form. The stem is finish nailed at either end and tack glued hopefully for easy removal later. Note the 1/4″ mahogany and full 3/4″ yellow pine strips at the shear.

After my stapler broke I elected to used 18 gauge nails to hold the strips on the forms. Clamps and, at times, masking tape held the strips in line for the most part. I think I’ll like the residual nail holes as they indicate the hand-made quality (emphasis is still on quality).

All clamps on deck! Still needed more.

Some strips had a real twist near the stems. Judicious use of a heat gun helped loosen the ligaments in the wood to allow for easier twisting of the strips where necessary. Otherwise, I suspect the wood might have protested and snapped. This is a good technique here which also helped warm the shop a bit.

Fender washer & drywall screw persuade a particularly stubborn strip.

Appears messy, but stripped to keel on port side.

Hot melt glue made fast work of the bottom’s more compliant strips.

Longer view toward bow.

A close up of marching slugs. Joints appear fairly tight. Hull shaping will tell.

Centerline shown with 1/8″ offset for keel strip.

1st pass at triming to the keel.

2nd keel trimming to just inside of the line.

final straight cut done

After the 2nd keel trimming I loosened the hull from the forms just enough to sneak a plane in to true up the work. Not hard at all really.

Port aft quadrant. Yellow pine keel installed. Trimming to commence.

I had segregated or book matched the strips as they came off the saw, but then promptly ignored the work as I stripped the boat. It was only at the tail end of the process did I realize my negligence. Luckily the wood is relatively the same in color. Call it character. I will monitor it closely on the deck.

End view. I was late to bookmatch the strips. Nice football at bottom.

Wood strips look nice.

I decided to repeat the bottom sheathing process to starboard. Strips were trimmed close to the previous side and then trimmed to allow for a 1/4″ yellow pine keel strip. Fairing of the starboard keel joint used a small chisel as the port side obstructed getting the plane in there. A rabbet plane may have worked. Must add that to my wish list.

OK, the Cliff Notes version of the process:

1. cut full scale sections (forms) out on 1/2″ plywwod or MDO board.
2. mount these forms on a strongback. form the boat hull & deck with longitudinal wood strips glued to each other.
3. sand, glass, sand, and varnish. Simple, right?

Well, here are pics of 30 hrs of work (none of which include the fetching of materials):

All paper forms spray mounted on 1/2″ exterior grade plywood scraps left over from the previous SOF kayak builds.

Good quality tools make all the difference. After years of working with cheap jigsaws, I bought a nice one. A Bosch 1591EVSL 120-Volt Barrel Grip. There is a huge difference with better tracking and ease of cutting.

Forms (minus stems) just prior to truing with a belt sander.

My strongback is a 16′ long 2″x5″ box glued and screwed. Other kayak build methods use these dimensions as a spine to string the forms on. The Outer Island does not have the volume in some of the sections to allow that however. Maybe pertinent on a subsequent build. The saw horses are a variant of several I’ve seen out there. Posts are notch to receive the strongback. Notches allow for sling straps to be added to support the hull when is done and flipped.

Forms mounted on strongback with brackets

Don’t assume your floor is level. My garage floor has quite a bit of “wave” to the slab. While I took care to level out the strongback, you rely on a floating centerline strung between 2 sticks at either end of the boat. However, moving the saw horses can throw it all off. I taped reference lines at the base of each sawhorse leg and screwed the strongback after shimming to the horses. When the sanding commences, I’d like the option of taking the hull outside to cut down the dust cleanup. Floor marks should return the boat in the same plane when glassing beins.
Clear plastic packaging tape covers the form edges to prevent the eventual strips from sticking.

All forms and stems here. that’s a Classic Moth beyond.

I opted to use inner stems. These will stay with the boat. They are shown here shaped with jack plane and ready for strips.

Sawhorse shelves & ledges

I also added shelves and ledges on my sawhorses. Tools and materials can be kept handy this way. Nails on the legs of the horses are good for hanging levels, hammers, glue guns, etc.

Feed stands to table to out feed table beyond.

2×10 Out feed table is bolted to the oak 1x fence.

I waxed my table to grease the feed. I’ve read corn meal or talcum powder works too. I could see meal on the out feed, but was concerned in adding slight height on the cut table.

Feed stand

Here Garden stones ballast and prevent the feed stands from capsizing.

Far end of out feed table. Battery is ballast.

First strips of yellow pine

I numbered the strips as they came off the saw. This allows for uniform grain and color set up if I decide to do so. I’m certain it will help in the eventual scarfing of the short strip.

Bundled strips. Note pencilled stripes to keep track of order.

Though not really pictured, I quickly realized I needed to set the strips aside. I used an old portable WorkMate bench and the top back of a chair with spring clamps added to prevent the pieces from sliding off. My thin out feed table allowed for easy placement of the strips.

This table saw has been worth a bundle. I can’t tell you how many projects it has assisted on after 3 houses and who knows how many miles of lumber it has cut. It is a Powermatic Model 63, discontinued, but the company is still out there .. and American. Super quality though some of the parts for this one are no longer available.

Saw set up prior to 1st cut

Clamped finger boards prior to cut.

With the strips cut, I was anxious to know what the color of the finished boat might look like, so I mocked up a few strips  and put a coat of varnish on them. WRC, YP, and mahogany looks great. I’ll play with the proportions on the real deal.

…and I guess it would help to show what I’m aiming at (courtesy of Ross Leidy).