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I thnk the lawn launch is an important part of our building process. In this case I was getting the initial position of foot rests and the phone rang for a call that I could not really ignore. This photo was snapped when I was not looking. In anticipation of all the questions, the kayak is one of Nick's Night Herons - the high deck version of the plans. It is made from Japanese Cedar (a single tree, milled from a local farm forester). The square patches on the lawn are where the gunea pigs cages were. The got moved around like organic lawn mowers. The dog thought that it was she who was getting her photo taken and did the correct pose.
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Equally important step - Cat Scan
The current build is a baidarka from Wolfgang Brinck's book and a lot of lurking about on on these things. I have just completed the ribs and stringers (no trimming as yet) and the cat decided it is time to take a look at the build process. The ribs and stringers are locally sourced bamboo. It was difficult to steam bend - very variable. It was pre-cut to 15mm x 7mm. Some strips bent OK, some just shattered. It is very tough though and not too heavy, about the same weight as pine. The stained red bit are all Japanese Cedar (which wont steam bend at all). Going by the rate of build I may get it finished in 12 or so months.....
lawn launch
Looks great, how fat is the gunea pig
Looks Great!
Nice job with the Night Heron. The baidarka frame looks great as well.
Re: Guinea Pigs
This photo was a few years ago. We started with 2 that were supposedly the same sex and ended up with about 20 of them. They are as good at breeding as they are at eating grass. We eventually re-homed them to a local vineyard where for a time they did a very good job of under vine grass control. We also now understand why Guinea Pigs are not a problem in the wild.
Night Heron
Hi Nick
Yes, I am pleased with the Night Heron. I agonised over whether to go standard or high deck. I am a below knee amputee and when I started the build I had not much hip and knee movement so I figured I needed the room. The boat has been finished now a few years and I am a bit more flexible now but still think the extra room is a good compromise. The wind does blow me around a bit but nothing I cant manage. I use a bar type footrest so can paddle one legged or two legged depending on the day. I also made the cockpit a little longer at the back to assist with entry and exit.
The build took a while( nearly 3 years) as I was busy working and so there was a wee struggle with joining the deck and had some shrinkage with strips. With some remedial woodwork I am pretty happy with the result. One interesting issue is that in flat water the boat would not paddle straight at speed, it would tend to go port or starboard and no amount of correction with paddling would bring it back on course. It as as though it was leaned to one side or the other. I put this down to me being a little unbalanced in the boat and probably the hull shape being a few mm out from your design. In choppy water the handling was great. In the end I added a 3/4" fixed skeg 18" long at the stern and that has sorted the flat water issues and does not seem to have introduced any other issues.
Thanks for the forum and all your years of toil and experience.