Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Skin-on-Frame: Sea Pup 'Plans' by Tom Yost *LINK*
By:Steve Phillips
Date: 9/3/2003, 1:08 am

A couple of people have asked where I got the plans, and I have to say right away that there aren't really any plans, as such, but all the info you really need is quite available. This link will take you to Tom Yost's Sea Pup Data page, and if you know the basic building method, then this is pretty much all you'll need. Tom builds most of his boats with 1/2" HDPE plastic sheet for the stations that the stringers attach to, and aluminum tubing for the stringers. As you know, we didn't build ours that way. If you want some basic info about how we built ours, keep reading. Tom- This design is yours, and I hope you don't mind my spreading it around a bit. I think I remember that you put this LINK up on the board a while back, so I'm assuming you won't mind.

Take the offsets for the stations, and transfer the points to paper. Remember that the corner points represent the 'corners' of the skin, or surface of the kayak. Then draw in the size stringers you want to use. We used clear pine, and one 1x6x16' piece was just right for each boat. Almost. Incidentally, neither Tom nor I make any guarantees about the safety of any boat you might build. What worked for us may not work for you. Stringer sizes we used: chines and keel: 3/4"x3/4", sheer clamps or gunwales: 5/8"x1 1/8", fore deck ridge: 1/2"x5/8", aft deck stringers: 3/8"x5/8". The individual stations we made out of 1/2" ACX or BCX fir ply, avoiding knots in the faces, and hopefully voids. I made a strongback about 4"x4"x16' using 3/4"ply. We positioned the stations upside down above the strongback in careful alignment and at the right heights and distances apart by screwing 16" pieces of 1x2 to the strongback sides and to the faces of the stations. We then fitted the keel in the station slots, and then very carefully sighted the keel to make sure it was very straight. It's easy to overlook the stations being out of level, also. Then we temporarily installed the rest of the stringers using zip ties. We used 1/2" ply for the stem and stern pieces, and not really knowing how to do it, we simply attached big (1'x2'...2'-6" would have been better) pieces of 1/2" ply to the strongbacks, then determined where the stringers should intersect the sides and edge (for the keel) of the plywood stem or stern. Then we drew the outline on the ply so it blended with the rest of the frame, notched the ply for the keel, and cut away the rest, but left the 'top' long and still attached to the strongback for the time being. When it all looked good, we'd detach one half of a stringer, epoxy it in place, then do the other half. The frames were fun to build, and were basically done in two days. Then we sanded and faired the frames, then coated them with a water base polyurethane. By the way, when I said 'almost' on the amount of wood, we were able to get the rest of the pieces (deck stringers and rub rails)out of a few well-chosen cheapo 1x2's from Home Depot.

Well, this is sort of fun to write, but maybe this isn't the right place, and besides, I wanna go to bed before too long. I'll try to copy and post this on our family web page, and then add to it when I have the time. If you have any specific construction questions, feel free to write to me directly. I'd direct you to Tom, but he's done more than his share of helpful guiding. I kept him pretty busy! To find our web page, go back to my postings from this morning, (9/02/03) and the ones (one I goofed up, the other works) that say they have a LINK to a lot of pics should take you to our page. I'll try to set up a new page in there where I can post this stuff. Wish me luck, I'm pretty computer illiterate!

Messages In This Thread

Skin-on-Frame: Sea Pup 'Plans' by Tom Yost *LINK*
Steve Phillips -- 9/3/2003, 1:08 am
Re: Skin-on-Frame: Sea Pup 'Plans' by Tom Yost
Bryan -- 9/3/2003, 8:16 pm