Laker 13 Kayak
This posting is from the future, meaning this project is already largely complete.
After putting down my 16' "Nice Canoe" I needed to address my need for just a bit more personal water craft footage. I thought about this a bit and read some articles online. I need to carry two light adults and a child (light meaning we are both sub 180lbs). This meant either something very large or two smaller boats. Since I do solo stuff, I opted to build a kayak. The free plans for the "Laker 13" are available from www.bateau.com. You get a download link in an email and two pdf's when you're done.
This would allow us to use the "Cheap Canoe" with a parent and child and the other to be in the kayak, greatest flexibility. I was convinced to go this route by an article that spoke about trying to use a two person canoe or kayak with only a single paddler or occupant.
I had wanted to have this ready to go for the Alviso Launch opening, no such luck. Between cures etc. , just not enough hours in a day.
I purchased some exterior grade ply, a solid 1/4" thick (a touch too thick in my mind) and went through the onerous task of marking out the cut lines. I definitely see the attraction of full size patterns after having done this 3 times now on various builds.
I prefer to use a circular saw for these cuts. In the future I will use a smaller blade though. On the tight radius cuts, it was a little difficult to get through the turn. A band saw might be good, but a jig saw just makes too rough of an edge on the backside of the cut for me.
Here are all the jigsaw puzzle pieces cut and layed out. This is probably about 5 hours into the project. Used 3 sheets of 4 x 8 plywood to get here. I'll use some other scraps of wood here and there for stringers etc.
Opted to use "Butt Blocks" for joining the pieces to make the full length of the boat. Here you see wax paper to keep from gluing the pieces to the cement and I have stacked a couple of containers of water on top to hold the block down with enough, but not too much, pressure. The epoxy is thickened for this with mircospheres.
A word on epoxy. OK, these are budget boats. On my sailboat I used Tap Plastics marine epoxy and it is a world of difference to the epoxy I used here. I would assume it to be the same with the West Systems epoxy. An order of magnitude in terms of quality results, control and finish. A gallon of good stuff costs over $100. For these canoes I have used the West Marine Supply Economy epoxy and the Bondo Brand of marine epoxy. Each about $40 a gallon. These budget epoxy's are stinky, so ventilation is mandatory, and they cure NOW. Not in 30 minutes or an hour. They cure in about 8-12 minutes depending on temperature. This makes it almost impossible to get a perfect surface while things are still setting up. The only plus is that they are fast, super fast. After curing they have a tacky feel, I believe this is the wax from curing. Before sanding or anything, I scrub everything with soap and water and then wipe with Acetone. This usually takes care of it. For high end work I would never use these.
Here is the bottom panels and bulkheads stitched together with small zip-ties. I used a bag of 100 for this boat. Once the sides are on, I glass taped them in place. The plans give you a choice of removing them and putting in other means of deck support. I like the idea of water tight compartments and this seemed like a straight forward way to go.
At this point I have to fillet the inside joints, glass and tape. For this I used Cabosil mixed with epoxy and it worked great. On previous builds I used "Wood Flour". It worked, but was hardly aesthetic. This was as much an issue of my source as anything. I have access to a woodworking shop where the tools are constantly used and generates a large amount of saw dust. I grabbed the finest dust I could find out of the table saws. I suspect I could have used a flour sifter to get out any large particles, but I didn't and it made for some pretty course fillet material. If the epoxy cured slower, this wouldn't have been a problem as I could have covered the fillet while still soft, but it didn't work that way. This required my knocking down and rough bits with a hand sander.
Moved the whole production out from under the sun for applying the glass to the bottom. At this point, I must be about 12 hours into the project, not counting cure times. This is just laying hands on the boat. This was the largest single piece of glass fabric I have applied to date. I pre-coated the hull surface with epoxy and let dry, but not cure before proceeding. Here we have the cloth fitted and cut. Ready to go. I think it was about 5 yards by 40" wide.
Felt pretty in control at this point. No panic. I cut 4 x 5" pieces of poly-vinyl plastic to use as squeegees. I had a big piece of this left over from shimming the rudder shaft on the Santana. Several feet for $7. It was nice because I can bend it to form the rounded edges of the freeboard to hull bottom intersection. Still, next time, I'll pull a big tarp out on the ground because of the dripping epoxy. A pressure washer may take all the hardened epoxy off my driveway, but it is still a pain. With the cure time of the epoxy, I'd mix about 6 ounces at a time and that covered about 1/3 of the hull form. I just kept mixing and moving along.
So there is the hull form. There will be several additional coats of epoxy and some sanding. But, this seems like a good place to stop, I'll pick up with the installation of the top in the next post.
After putting down my 16' "Nice Canoe" I needed to address my need for just a bit more personal water craft footage. I thought about this a bit and read some articles online. I need to carry two light adults and a child (light meaning we are both sub 180lbs). This meant either something very large or two smaller boats. Since I do solo stuff, I opted to build a kayak. The free plans for the "Laker 13" are available from www.bateau.com. You get a download link in an email and two pdf's when you're done.
This would allow us to use the "Cheap Canoe" with a parent and child and the other to be in the kayak, greatest flexibility. I was convinced to go this route by an article that spoke about trying to use a two person canoe or kayak with only a single paddler or occupant.
I had wanted to have this ready to go for the Alviso Launch opening, no such luck. Between cures etc. , just not enough hours in a day.
Plywood with cut lines marked
I purchased some exterior grade ply, a solid 1/4" thick (a touch too thick in my mind) and went through the onerous task of marking out the cut lines. I definitely see the attraction of full size patterns after having done this 3 times now on various builds.
Cuts in progress
I prefer to use a circular saw for these cuts. In the future I will use a smaller blade though. On the tight radius cuts, it was a little difficult to get through the turn. A band saw might be good, but a jig saw just makes too rough of an edge on the backside of the cut for me.
All pieces cut
Here are all the jigsaw puzzle pieces cut and layed out. This is probably about 5 hours into the project. Used 3 sheets of 4 x 8 plywood to get here. I'll use some other scraps of wood here and there for stringers etc.
Butt blocks curing
Opted to use "Butt Blocks" for joining the pieces to make the full length of the boat. Here you see wax paper to keep from gluing the pieces to the cement and I have stacked a couple of containers of water on top to hold the block down with enough, but not too much, pressure. The epoxy is thickened for this with mircospheres.
A word on epoxy. OK, these are budget boats. On my sailboat I used Tap Plastics marine epoxy and it is a world of difference to the epoxy I used here. I would assume it to be the same with the West Systems epoxy. An order of magnitude in terms of quality results, control and finish. A gallon of good stuff costs over $100. For these canoes I have used the West Marine Supply Economy epoxy and the Bondo Brand of marine epoxy. Each about $40 a gallon. These budget epoxy's are stinky, so ventilation is mandatory, and they cure NOW. Not in 30 minutes or an hour. They cure in about 8-12 minutes depending on temperature. This makes it almost impossible to get a perfect surface while things are still setting up. The only plus is that they are fast, super fast. After curing they have a tacky feel, I believe this is the wax from curing. Before sanding or anything, I scrub everything with soap and water and then wipe with Acetone. This usually takes care of it. For high end work I would never use these.
bottom "stitched" with bulkheads in place
Here is the bottom panels and bulkheads stitched together with small zip-ties. I used a bag of 100 for this boat. Once the sides are on, I glass taped them in place. The plans give you a choice of removing them and putting in other means of deck support. I like the idea of water tight compartments and this seemed like a straight forward way to go.
suddenly, it's a boat
At this point I have to fillet the inside joints, glass and tape. For this I used Cabosil mixed with epoxy and it worked great. On previous builds I used "Wood Flour". It worked, but was hardly aesthetic. This was as much an issue of my source as anything. I have access to a woodworking shop where the tools are constantly used and generates a large amount of saw dust. I grabbed the finest dust I could find out of the table saws. I suspect I could have used a flour sifter to get out any large particles, but I didn't and it made for some pretty course fillet material. If the epoxy cured slower, this wouldn't have been a problem as I could have covered the fillet while still soft, but it didn't work that way. This required my knocking down and rough bits with a hand sander.
fitting glass cloth
Moved the whole production out from under the sun for applying the glass to the bottom. At this point, I must be about 12 hours into the project, not counting cure times. This is just laying hands on the boat. This was the largest single piece of glass fabric I have applied to date. I pre-coated the hull surface with epoxy and let dry, but not cure before proceeding. Here we have the cloth fitted and cut. Ready to go. I think it was about 5 yards by 40" wide.
halfway "wetted" out
Felt pretty in control at this point. No panic. I cut 4 x 5" pieces of poly-vinyl plastic to use as squeegees. I had a big piece of this left over from shimming the rudder shaft on the Santana. Several feet for $7. It was nice because I can bend it to form the rounded edges of the freeboard to hull bottom intersection. Still, next time, I'll pull a big tarp out on the ground because of the dripping epoxy. A pressure washer may take all the hardened epoxy off my driveway, but it is still a pain. With the cure time of the epoxy, I'd mix about 6 ounces at a time and that covered about 1/3 of the hull form. I just kept mixing and moving along.
fully "wetted" out, whew!
So there is the hull form. There will be several additional coats of epoxy and some sanding. But, this seems like a good place to stop, I'll pick up with the installation of the top in the next post.
Comments
Thanks for the blog and sharing