More images below... |
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More images below... |
* * * E X C E L L E N T ! * * * I've received a tremendous amount of help from the kind and knowledgeable boat-building community at CLC's Forum, and thanks to them I know exactly how to proceed with the deck of my kayak.I've decided to protect and strengthen the deck with fiberglass. I will round over the hull-to-deck joint, and allow the fiberglass to lay over it and onto the side where it will be feathered with the hull. I will keep the radius of the round-over small so when the rubrails are installed they will sit right at the bottom of the radius and not be set too low from the height of the deck-- as was kindly suggested by a friendly boatbuilder at the forum : ) .
The trimming and rounding-over, Part I, will take place on Wednesday, July 24, after I glue the butt joint, and in anticipation of another block-planing marathon, the following Friday will be rounding-over, Part II. I imagine sometime during the weekend I will be able to lay the fiberglass (my hopes are high!) I am so pleased with the help I've received, and I'm excited to continue! : )
| J U L Y 1 8 |
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Nailing Made Easy! |
foredeck to form... |
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not-so-dazzling buttjoint.. |
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Thursday, July 18, was definitely a day-long affair with the kayak! Two hours reading and researching, 2 hours hunting and gathering tools, and finally at 2:00PM the operation began: seal the underside with unthickened epoxy, coat top surfaces of deckbeams, bulkhead, and sheer clamps with epoxy thickened with Cab-o-sil, place wet deck onto wet hull eyeballing centerline, strap it down, and start nailing!I did this entirely solo, and I'm quite pleased to say that it wasn't a complete fiasco, and I'm actually rather delighted with the outcome! -- which is not to say that it wasn't without its hairing-raising, jaw-dropping challenges... Needless to say, I learned PLENTY of things during this stage, most of which are shared in the clickable thumbnails above!
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