>

> The plywood panels were stapled to the molds, then mini-fillets
> applied between mold stations. It did not spring out of shape, or
> twist when removed from the molds. I did, however, permanently install
> the water-tight bulkheads, and four little deck beams prior to removing
> it from the strongback. This may have helped it retain it's shape.
>

> How do you use a strongback with any of the available stitch-and-glue
> kayak kits or plans? They don't come with station offsets do they?
> I mean, how would you build the molds? Mine was home-designed, so
> I had the station offsets.

>

My Pygmy Coho kit was supplied with station molds(5) They were tempoarily wired to the panels and hot glued also. I used my strongback from a previous boat. The molds kept all the panels in allignment with very little adjustment required. The chine seams were mini filleted and the wires were pulled. The hulled glassed and boat flipped over and deck is wired to the same molds. the deck is mini filleted the same way and removed for later glassing. The molds are removed from the hull with a soldering iron to melt glue. With these molds in place, all the panels followed their intended fair curve along the hull without any dips or bumps. The use of the strongback keeps things from moving around and is great for glassing as the entire strongback is within the shearline so the cloth has nothing to catch on.

I cant imagine how you can keep panels straight without station molds to form the shape of the boat.

Larry