See below for an

> Hello All:

> At last I have completed the my Guillemot Expedition Single to paddle her.
> I took her out on a seven day trip through the San Juan Islands and I will
> post the trip report soon. But I have a couple of building questions for
> the group.

Any chance you were staying in Port Townsend some time on your trip. While I was on vaction I saw a Guillemot on top of a car in Port Townsend

> Two --

> I capsized only once during the trip. The amount of water I had to
> pump/sponge/tip out made me wish I had found time to install the bulkheads
> _before_ the trip. So they are at the top of my list now. I have this
> problem though. On the forward one, I don't know how I will fit it in. If
> I make it small enough to fit in the forward hatch, how will it fit
> tightly to the larger part of the kayak aft of the hatch? If I go through
> the cockpit to get to it, how will I get it past the footpeg rails? By the
> way, the bolts securing the rails do not penetrate the hull, but are
> fastened to some tee-nuts behind a small strip of wood glassed into the
> hull. How will I fit the bulkhead?

If you use mini-cell foam you can squeeze it into position either through the cockpit or through the front hatch. For the front hatch I used the #7 (I think) form as a template to shape a 2" thick piece of mini-cell and then caulked around it to make it water tight.

> Fourth --

> I made flush hatches as described in Nick's wonderful book. They look nice
> enough, but when I made the lip for the hatch to rest upon, I failed to
> anticipate the thickness of any seal. So, my hatches were flush only until
> I put a seal on them. Now, any seal I use, (1/4" closed cell self
> adhesive weatherstripping at this point,) will raise the hatch above the
> height of the deck by the thickness of the seal. Not what I had hoped for,
> of course. I am looking for ways to either lower the lip (ugh!) or make a
> zero (ha!) thickness seal, or thin the hatch (ahhh, no thanks) or ??? I
> need help here, please.

There was a thread several months ago describing how to use marine caulk to create a thin seal. Esentially you put some plastic wrap over the lip, squeeze out a bead of caulk on the underside of the hatch cover and put the hatch in place. You can get a good watertight seal that is 1/8" or thinner and maintain the flush hatch.

The trick is getting the plastic wrap to lie smooth on the lip while the caulk is firming up. A thin coating of vasaline does the trick. When the caulk is partway dry you take off the hatch and peal off the wap. It worked for me