Sea Through Rover part 3

When do I know if I've got the building buzz bad? When I look at the sea from the deck and think "paddling? - Nah" and turn back to the kayak. That's what it has been like the last couple of weekends, I'm finding the Tom Yost building method fascinating.

The frame was completely sanded and all corners rounded off. This took close to a week's worth of spare time since I couldn't cheat and use the electric sander. Started off with 60 grit, then 120 and finished off with 180. After that the patches on the stations where I had accidentally sanded were recoated with gel stain.

Next on the list was the coaming rim. I wanted a floating coaming which will press down during laybacks but still wanted a wooden coaming!. My solution was to form an outer coaming consisting of 2 lengths of Mangeao and a inner ring of 1 length. Planned on sandwiching the pvc rim between them. Mangeao is our best native wood for steam bending and I had some 1/2 width strips of it stashed away under the house which I was going to incorporate into a strip yak but never did. Not wanting to build a steamer I left it out in the rain for a few days and was going to hit it with the hot air gun. To get the right shape I made a jig out of MDF.

So everything was set up, leather belt attached as a brace for the back of the wood and hot air gun out and ready for action in my left hand. Then I clamped one end of a strip to the jig and slowly started to bend it around - surprise it bent with ease and there was no need for any heat or the belt at all! After the 1st one was on the jig I coated the 2nd piece with Gorilla glue, attached it and bent that as well by slowly moving clamps around the jig. The next day after the wood and glued had dried I bent the inner rim the same way.

I moved the yak into the lounge so I could work at night and coated the rest of the frame with Mahogany Sikkens Cetol HLS. This stuff is a cross between a stain, a oil and a varnish. It also contains anti-fungal ingredient that I hope will preserve the wood for a long time. A couple of coats of this stuff then a final coat of HLS mixed with varnish brought out a fantastic colouring in the wood.

Raiding my backpacking mattress supply I chopped up one and glued it onto the floorboards. This will be all the seat that's needed since its comfortable enough for rolling practice but still keeps the centre of gravity low. Also tried the kayak for fit and found that I can barely get in. The tightest area was station 3 which I had to force my feet under. I couldn't use it as a foot brace (recommended way) since it was too close for my long legs. Instead of doing the logical thing by cutting it out and moving it forward, thinned the inside top of the station by approx 1cm and lined it with foam. It might still be uncomfortable but it should be effective.

This weekend was the fun bit. I got to turn the kayak into a giant soap bubble! After unrolling 6m of clear PVC I layed it on top of the hull and started to scratch my head as to where to start. Luckily I had an email from Tom Yost outlining the procedure, but I was using pvc and not vinyl so was unsure if things would work out. After slicing the pvc in half length wise I shot some stainless steel staples into the middle of the gunwale. No going back now! Pulling it tight as I went I stapled every foot on alternative sides leaving a foot free at the bow and stern. As per Tom's instructions I then filled in the gaps until there was a staple every 3" or so.

The bow and stern where sliced so the material meet up nicely then I coated it and a 2cm wide strip with Marley PVC solvent. Not the glue recommended, but its what was available here on the island and I was working with PVC. Once dried the strip was taped to one side and the solvent reactivated with the heat gun. It instantly stuck so I stretched it over to meet the other side and again reactivated the glue.

After trimming off the excess hull material and coating it with solvent I proceeded with the deck in a similar manner although the radical angle of the cockpit area caused me a few headaches but by going over it with the hot air gun the wrinkles disappeared as I stapled. The worse part was joining the deck to the hull at the bow and stern tips. Never got it right but at least its waterproof if unsightly compared to the rest of the skin.

Now I had that giant soap bubble! :) Today I moved the kayak to the front deck then scratched my head again over making the coaming rim. Before skinning I had put the bending jig in place as a temporary base board for cutting out the rim. After studying Tom Yosts wooden coaming page I decided to follow it in a similar fashion but leaving out the velcro part. Cutting out the cockpit was nerve wrecking since I had visions of the skin suddenly "relaxing" but it worked well. After cutting 2" sections around the coaming I bent them up, taped them in place and glued a strip around on the inside. When this had cooled I removed the wooden coaming then glued another strip on the outside of the 2" sections. This made the rim semi flexible - stiff enough to stand by itself by still able to squish down during laybacks. As a temporary measure I used some contact adhesive to glue the outer coaming into position then coated the inner rim with urethane sealant and clamped in place. I'm leaving this for the night to set and hopefully glue the inner rim in place. Next I will drill and peg the coamings on permently.

The STR is close to finished now. Just got to make up some deck rigging and peg the coaming and rub rails. Of course the quick build I had originally anticipated has turned out to be a major project so these few jobs may end up being a bigger feat then expected.