: I have seen a few references to building a stitch and Glue kayak as a 3 piece
: take apart. Has anyone ever tried this (or seen it tried) with a strip
: built kayak?

Hi there, Randy.

I just completed converting Dick M.'s Pygmy Arctic Tern 14 into a 3-piece boat. It's currently out and about for sea trials and to let Dick figure out his fitting-out specs for the accessories like a pump, perimeter lines, and so on. So it's not totally finished out yet; when he brings it back for the final sanding and varnish (or urethane), I'll be closely inspecting all the details again for review or modification.

But so far, so good. No evidence of flexing or cracking in the critical spots such as the bolt mounts and the shell/bulkhead boundry.

What I've seen so far looks like this (or a similar) method would work for a strip kayak as well.

As mentioned in another response, pre-locating the bulkheads as, perhaps, part of the assembly forms or something might help, but it would take some figuring that isn't required for a S&G boat. I assembled the Arctic Tern all the way through the basic construction, then made the modifications.

The general sequence, then, was:

Build the kayak through to the point where you have the entire shell, that is, the deck and hull are complete and attached to each other. Or, in other words, you have a perfectly working boat, but without the bulkheads or other after-construction mods.

You'll need to heavily reinforce the insides of the hull and deck in the bulkhead locations. Some of that you can do more easily during assembly, that is, while the deck and hull are still separated. If not, you'll have to do it later at some other time.

Locate (carefully!) the bulkheads. The forward bulkhead needs to be far enough forward to allow installation of your anticipated add-ons, such as in this case, a Guzzler foot pump, and your choice of foot rests. Make any error on the side of possibly having it too far forward: you really, really don't want it too short. Since I was doing this for someone else, I was constantly worrying and double-checking. And it paid off; I almost made my cut 1" too far 'short' because I failed to account for the thickness of the bulkhead. Caught it just in time.

Cut your bow and stern hatch holes at an appropriate distance from the bulkheads. Leave enough space on the deck for the extra reinforcing inside to be effective, while allowing you to see and reach inside during assembly.

Layout the lines of the bulkhead on the inside of the boat, using measurements from reference points, levels or eyeball to get it as even and vertical as posible.

Transfer the lines to the outside of the boat. I used very small drill bits to create a connect-the-dots pattern on the outside. Scribe the line connecting the dots. This is the line you'll use to make your cuts.

Orient and install one of each matching pair of bulkheads. What I mean is partly install, really; I used just enough globs of 5-minute epoxy to position the bulkhead properly AS WELL AS keep the wider hull and deck panels from flexing or bending between 'corners'. This is pretty critical, I think, otherwise you risk having the panels (or strips) on either side of the cut bend themselves out of the original alignment, thus messing up the fairness of the lines.

Install the proper spacers that will create the proper gap between the bulkheads. Ideally, these spacers will be exactly the width of your cut. In reality, I used ordinary 1/16" washers to match the kerf of my hacksaw blade.

Install the matching bulkhead in much the same fashion as the first. One good reason to use blobs of 5-minute epoxy at this stage is that if you decide you've got it wrong, all you have to do is bang it out with a mallet, clean it up and re-do it.

There's a couple things to point out here. First, there are two separate sets of items to install at this stage. One set is the four (in my case) sheetrock screws which I installed through the washers. These hold the washers in place as well as the sections together as you cut; you finagle your way around them as you cut. The second set is two 3/4" dowels fitting into holes in the bulkheads drilled AFTER the sheetrock screws have 'set' the positioning of the bulkheads relative to each other. One end of each dowel will be glued into position, while the other end slips (snugly) into the receiving hole of the other. This way, the sections will automatically be aligned properly every time you assemble the boat; the bolts themselves will be used only to draw the sections together, and not to orient or position the sections.

Take a deep breath, a shot of whiskey (or your favorite refreshing beverage), grab the hacksaw, and go to work. Support the work on both sides of the cut. I also bridged the cut with small blocks of wood hot glued to the outside as I went along.

I used the hacksaw blade backwards, so that it cut on the pull stroke, because I found it easier to follow my line this way. This chews up the outside corner surface a little bit, but as this needs to be rounded off anyway, don't worry about it.

Take your time, but don't worry excessively about wandering too much. Yes, it would be real nice to get a 1/50" accuracy, but I have some places where I got over a 1/16" off the track. By the time you're all done with the sanding, glassing and stuff, you really won't see the errors. This is much like cutting your hatch holes; the small errors just don't show at the end of the day.

That's the short of it. I haven't written the whole thing up yet, but I plan to. I'll post a link for it to my homepage website after I get it all together. In the meantime I'll welcome questions and comments, as they will help guide me in what information needs to be emphasized or highlighted.

I've left out important stuff like the glassing schedule, locating the bolt holes and such, but I wanted to give you a real answer from someone who has actually done something like what you have in mind.

From today's perspective, I'll say you really need to have a good reason for doing this. It's not just an interesting project; it's a bunch of work, and about 90% will not be visible when you are finished.

I failed completely in my estimation (beforehand) of how many hours this would take. It's not simply twice the work of installing two bulkheads, mostly because of all the glass work involved reinforcing the inside surfaces of the bulkheads, deck and hull.

Why? Because 'ordinary' bulkheads are mainly there to keep water out of parts of the boat. These bulkheads, on the other hand, become an integral part of the strength and structure of the boat. They must be reinforced and attached properly to channel and contain all the forces passing through the boat, and they must do this without flexing. Since you are putting your life on the line, you want it to work all the time, so you need to add some 'safety' reserve strength so that if the boat fails, it won't be because of your modifications.

It remains to be seen whether I have weakened the overall strength of the boat or not. You will run into the ubiquitous issue of weight versus strength as you get into making your design.

Any questions?

Pete Roszyk,
in Snohomish, Washington