The Learning Process....

This first picture is the start of Stella and the first two strips being laid. The sheer strip is the first (dark) strip and it's very, very important that you place this strip exactly, as it will define the fair of your hull, along with how you've already set up your forms. Taking extra time and having patience in these first few steps are key!!
You'll notice all the spring clamps. This is because I'm doing a "stapleless build" with this boat. I'm using a combination of the spring clamps along with home-made "L" brackets made out of leftover 1/2" particle board to hold the strips to the forms. I just couldn't bear the thought of putting a bajillion holes in the beautiful wood with staples. It might be a little extra work, but well worth it in the end. I have seen boats that were built with the staple method, and although they were nice looking from a distance, up close you can see every hole and it looks awful! I am also using 1-1/2" painters tape in between the stations where I clamp to ensure a nice tight fit of the cove and bead joint. I rip the tape long and am able to re-use each piece several times, so I save on waste. The other thing I have done, was I made a trip down to a local bike shop and scavenged a bunch of old bicycle tubes and use them like giant rubber bands (particularly on the stern and bow) and you can't beat FREE!!! If it's free, it's me!



More of the same. As you continue stripping the hull, you'll develop your own technique as to how you like to do things. There is always more than one way to skin a cat. If you think of a better way, let me know!



Above is a shot of the bow after several strips have been laid. The bow and stern take a little extra time, but once you figure out how they go on, the strips lay in quite nicely. One thing I do while I'm laying strips, is I have a few damp rags spaced out along the form and wipe any excess glue squeeze-out while I clamp the strip into place. This will save you time later in your sanding as well. ALSO, don't forget to wipe the excess glue from the inside of your hull!

Buildin a boat is incredibly fun, but it also takes patience....so when you find that you're running out of it, take a break, go for a ride and come back to it later! Then you won't have to fix stuff that went wrong while you were not so mentally stable!!!
A beautiful spring day in Montana! I'll continue with this another night! Caio!!!

The Building continues....

It's damn near the end of April and I'm finally getting some pictures uploaded to the blog. Stella and Lucy, our kayaks; are coming along nicely as you will see from the pictures. To backtrack somewhat, a lot really; I went to the Kayak expo when I was in the Tri Cities with my friend, Pat Sullivan; a couple of years ago. Seeing some of the hand-crafted boats really impressed Pat & I, and ever since I've had it the back of my mind to build my own boat (because I don't want to buy one....they are very expensive!!!) Anyway, into my life comes an amazing girl....Marie Wilson....and her birthday is in July....sounds like just enough time to build it and surprize her for her birthday, but low and behold, when she finds out I'm building a kayak for "myself" (in her garage by the way), she decides that she wants to build one too.....sooooo.......tear down the form and completely duplicate every piece of the kit that I received. Now we have twins!! We affectionately call them "the girls".


I searched for boats and finally decided on the "Silver" kit from Redfish Kayaks (which, incidentally is located in Port Townsend, Wa.; where I was born and rasied). I picked it because of the size and style, taking into consideration that Marie is small and light, which the Silver, now named Lucy (I'll get to that) should be a nice fit. I called Joe (the owner of Redfish) and spoke to him about the boats and have since been back to P.T. on a visit with my daughter Ashley, and have actually been to his shop, gaining some useful tips, which I hope to pass on to other future builders (PAT) as well as have a neat blog (kudoz to Marie for the blog) for remembering the construction process.

While I was getting started with "my" boat, we still had to purchase several more tools and the wood for Maries' boat. We did that in several places and I (we) have since spent a few days ripping, planning & routering cedar for the strips of the hull, weather permitting....winter will not go away this year. Last weekend it was 76 on Sunday (I was fried to a crisp while routering most of the afternoon) and the next day it was snowing!!!) However, when I wasn't busy with Marie's wood, I had time to devote to what is now "my" boat...and had lots of help from Marie. It's been really fun building these boats together! Buying wood and cutting it yourself will save about 50% on the actual wood costs, if you already have the tools that is. Otherwise, you can buy milled strips from a number of sources.

The names.....

I had been thinking that I needed to name the boat. I love old movies and one of my favorite of all time is "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Marlon Brando. Can't you just hear Marlon Brand yelling, "STELLAAAAA!!!" I also liked to watch "I love Lucy" while I was growing up and so the names "Stella" & "Lucy" came to mind. I mentioned this in passing to Marie. A couple days later (I had already decided on "Stella") Marie came home, having forgotten the other name and that I was trying to decide between the two; and said, "I'm naming her "Lucy"!" So I say, "Soooo original, that's the other name I was thinking about!" Well...maybe it wasn't quite like that, but it was funny. You had to be there I suppose.



Anyway......I am almost done stripping Stella's hull


and Marie, now that she has wood; got a really good start this last weekend. I will try and figure out how to do captions and explain some of the pictures, but that will be another night.