Kayak Building

Hey Guys,

Hope all are well.  

About to start skinning a 16 foot fuselage frame, touring style skin on frame kayak, primarily for light duty overnight tripping. Trying a few things to keep the weight down while ensuring respectable durability, and was thinking that I might shave a couple of pounds off by using a heavier fabric only on the bottom up to the gunnel (e.g. 9 ounce poly or 12 ounce nylon), and a light fabric (3 ounce Dacron) for the  deck, where presumably there wouldn't be much stress/abrasion risk. Would staple both top and bottom halves along the gunnel and cover with a lightweight cedar rub strip.

A very pedestrian type of question, but since you guys are good with ingenious, outside-the-box suggestions, I'll ask anyway :) I need to mask off my cockpit coaming for painting.  Of course, Big Box has all kinds of Blue tape and Frog tape, but I want something flexible enough to make the  curve at the front of the coaming, like about a 3" radius. Thin foam strips?

Afternoon All,

I'm in the middle of my first wood strip kayak build.  About to put he fiberglass on the hull.  

I came across someone selling a couple spray skirts, and thought it might be a good idea to size the coaming to fit a standard size skirt.  Anyone have an idea of the dimensions of the Seals brand Inlander 1.7 and the Inlander 7.0 skirt?  I tried to contact Seals, and they are non-responsive.  Hard to believe a company can stay in business with that type of customer service.

Thanks a lot,

Greg

I'm going to build a molded fiberglass cockpit rim. I've done it before, but I forgot where I got this very bendable material:

Is there any other type of material besides plywood that might work?

I'm building a small stripper. I used 3/16" pawlonia strips for the hull, and WRC for the deck. As is my usual sequence, I stripped the hull, flipped it, stripped the deck, removed the deck, faired the hull interior, and fiberglassed the hull interior. I replaced forms 15, 12, 10 6, and 3 back in the hull at points I had pre-marked, before the epoxy was fully cured. I noticed that the forms fit well low in the hull, but there was a gap at the sheer, so I stretched tape across the hull to bring it in tight. One day later, the tapes strips were slack, and the forms fit snugly in the hull.

Hey everyone! Ive spent the last year Building, Filming, and Editing all of this Kayak stuff! Please check out my video and tell me what you think.

https://youtu.be/E19DtoB8eiY

I have a 1980s era Folbot Super TSK (I'm pretty sure that's what it is) that I'm going to reskin and refinish, among other things. I've got some ideas on how to reskin but they're only ideas, so I could really use some help. I have limited funds but think I have the hand tools I need (hopefully). Here are my questions:

I was going to use heavy duty truck tarp material (it's a PVC coated polyester) for a new skin - will that work?

It isn't mine but it's good.

The Night Before Kayak Christmas

Southwind's adaptation of an old kayaker's verse

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the boathouse
Not a creature was stirring, not even a sea louse.
The sea socks were hung on the trailer with care,
In hopes that Saint Neptune soon would be there.

I was trying to find an old poem that I was sure I posted in the old trips forum. I didn't find the poem but I did find a trip report for December 19, 2012. Sadly, I cannot repeat this performance because the VJ is in dry dock and not ready for use. Have a read. WARNING: Make up a cup of steaming hot chocolate before reading this old story.

http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Trips/index.cgi/md/read/id/37077/sbj/icy-cold-river-trip-today/