Spring Run (part 3 begining the deck)

11/06/09  I continue to glue up little strips while working on the hull at the same time

As you can tell from the following pics, I have finished the bow point in Paduk with a Mahogany behind it, and am now working on the Dark Red Cedar.

11/01/09  As of today I am starting to strip my deck now, I think you can see from the pics what the basic design is going to be….

Although I had to staple/nail the first row on, I am happy to say that I am back to using my “Doodads” to secure the strips.

My biggest delima now is the fact I used a hot melt glue gun to set the shear strip and I am not sure how easy it will be to strip the forms when I am done. LOL    I also have to remember to re-tape the forms before I continue or I will have a real problem stripping the forms.

Spring Run (part 2 finishing the hull)

11/06/09   Well it is time to work on the inside of the Hull while I continue to work on stripping the deck.

After scraping and sanding the inside I mixed up some fillet compound (epoxy, woodflour, and Cab-o-sil) and put fillets in the stems.  This is not necessary, but is a trick I learned from my friends that make S&G yaks.  It makes it much easier to lay the inside cloth with no air pockets or wrinkles.

And then I skimmed the entire inside with an epoxy putty to fill all voids for the same reason

11/01/09  Well it is the beginning of November and the end of Daylight Savings Time.  I found a little energy to work on the yak today, got the shear strip pieces (which I had to staple/nail) secured to the forms and then stripped the deck and forms from the hull.

The hull is already loose from the forms, and the gaps you see are from the spring back.

And now the inside of the hull is ready to be scraped, planed, and sanded

It is also time to start the next chapter of this build, as I will be working on the hull as well as the deck at the same time.

10/30/09   Here it is the end of the month and I haven’t posted anything.  I guess I might not make the Christmas deadline I set for myself.  The reasons I haven’t progressed are basic ones I guess.  The first one is that I am working now and by the time I get home it is dark and I am tired. LOL  2nd is that now is the best time to be kayaking and camping here in FL and I am trying to take advantage of it while I can.  So my free time has been spent playing instead of working on the yak.   3rd is I recently hurt my back and have not been able to do anything much less work on the yak, but thanks to Modern medicine (good drugs) I am getting better.  And the 4th reason is probably the biggest reason.  I am stumped with how to do what I want as far as the deck design goes.  The deck strips I need to start with are many little pieces that are cut at angles.  Trying to cut them to the right length, right angle, glue them together and wrap them around the curves of the forms has proved to be challenging at best when I am trying not to use staples.  I may have to give up on that and staple the first strip till I can get 2 strips mounted on both sides and use the Hot Melt glue gun to secure them to the forms so I can finish it with the “Doodads” 

10/05/09  The following pics are the of the second coat of epoxy while there was enough daylight to still take pics… barely.

This is the graphic I have settled on with changing the name to “Flyin’”.  That too is subject to change at any given moment. LOL

10/04/09  Well, I got the hull all sanded and ready to glass.  I was going to go get my camera, then excitement got a hold of me and the next thing I know I am spreading glass on my yak!!!  Well, I can’t let bare glass just set there, so it was time to mix up some epoxy and start spreading.  As usual, I put an extra layer of 4 oz glass on the stems, and the center of the hull before covering the entire yak.

 

The Padauk does not stand out as red as I hoped against the Mahogany or Dark Red Cedar as I had hoped.  But it is still pretty!  I only have after work for the next 2 weeks to work on the yak, having plans for the next 2 weekends.  Gee, I hope I can finish this yak by Christmas.

9/28/09  Can you tell what I have been doing lately???

Yeppers!!!  I am planeing and Faring the hull.  Not a lot to see different, and I am not getting much done a night do to being busy working, but here are the latest pics.  Notice some of my favorite tools, they are not needed, but fun to use. LOL

Spring Run (part 1 the begining The Hull)

09/16/09  Today I finished glueing everything on the  hull.  Now it is time to start working the plane and faring board.

Now I have decided to finish out the bottom of this yak with the dark Aromatic Red Cedar.  This is very different for me, because all my previous yaks have all had light colored hulls.

Now I decided to start my outer stems in padauk to match the center of the stripe, that and I also liked the way it looked on the “King” I just finished

I decided to equal the white cedar on both sides of the stripe, and then put a WRC strip before changing colors again.

Working both sides till I reach the top of the inner stem forms.

Got the stripe done and am continueing with the white cedar.

09/01/09  Here it is Tuesday again, and I don’t have much to report.  Between work and health, I have not gotten very far this past week.  Here is what was happening so far.

  Things I have learned this last week.  That even using these High Teck Doodads, you also need lots of clamps.  But only at the bow & stern, and only if you are bending your strips rather than using fillers.

and rubber bands and this florida heat don’t really agree.  When I go out to the shop to check on it, I find a floor full of broken rubber bands and a few acrylic clamps just sitting on the boat.  When tieing the rubber bands on, when they break they send the doodads with force to the floor.  Mine being a concrete floor, the acrylic doodads don’t survive.  I have managed to break 5 of them so far.  But I still love them!!!  Something tells me I need to order another batch of these just to have around for future builds.

Well as you can tell, I decided to add a racing stripe down the side of my hull.  I had some padauk and mahogany left over from previous builds.

And now I am back to White Cedar…

08/24/09  I know I said a week, but I am thinking that I will just post on Tuesday night.  Not a lot has changed from the last post, but I now have 4 full strips on the port side, and 5 along the starboard side.

Again I am bending my strips to form the bow & stern because I like the way it looks.  I have seen yaks with filler strips, but you lose the lines of the boat visualy with them.  At the moment the only place I am using clamps is at the bow & stern.

the stern

the bow

Speaking of clamps, this is where I would normally show you 30-60 clamps of different types hold the strips in place along with a bunch of staples holding them to the forms.  But these “Doodads”  I got from Seppy in Brisbane, and invented by Amlap in Portugal (both were met online with the “BlueHeron” forum) are the cats meow!!!   So Thanks Silvero, and Rick!!!   With these little pieces of acrylic and $10 worth of rubber bands all my clamping needs are taken care of.  What I have learned so far is to place one over any joint you have and it keeps them even, wrap the rubberband tightly because they are what clamps it, the pieces are only the holders, and in stubborn areas, just add another.

my joints seem to be tighter and lining up at the ends better, but I am not sure if it has to do with the clamp system, or the fact I can only do one run per side at a time, so I am spending more time being finicky.

08/23/09  I now have 2 strips down each side, but because of the relaxed way of building this yak, I have decided to only show posts on the progress once a week.  You dont really want to see each piece as it gets glued on.

 

08/21/09  Today I worked on setting my forms on the strongback, Aligning (leveling and squaring them up), taping the forms, and installing my begining strips (for the life of me I can’t think of what they are called! LOL).

  Then I had to play with the “Doodads” I got from Seppy Down Under just to see how they work.  I may have to order some more of these, Pretty Slick!!!

This is my first attempt to build without staples

Although I am using clamps at the moment in the middle, I am hoping to just use rubber bands and Doodads as the sides build

I still have not settled on a pattern yet for the deck, I know I wanted the shearline to be WRC and the hull AWC at least to the waterline.  I also have bounced around names and graphics and have narrowed it down to 2.  It will either be called the “Water Nymph” or the “Dolphin”.  I like the first one, but obtaining a graphic I like will be hard.

08/19/09  I made my new strong back today and marked my forms.  Laid the spacing out on the strong back, ripped and glued some scrap Mahogany on the bow & stern forms for my inner stems.  It has begun!