Paddle, Eyestrap, Planing. 51 hours

I ordered a paddle for the Kayak monday and it arrived today. I choose the Mistrel Hybrid 240cm from Chesapeake Light Craft. It has a composite shaft and the blades are made of cedar, butternut and basswood. It also comes with drip rings. The total weight is a very light 28oz and the price is pretty reasonable for such a light weight, good looking paddle. CLC had free shipping on certain items this month so I took advantage of that and got the paddle before the sale ends at the end of Feb.
I also bought a carbon fiber eyestrap from CLC. This item is a dissapointment. It looked much bigger in the pictures online. Its made of carbon fiber and looks cool close up. In actuality the eyestrap is very small. Only a very small diameter rope will fit through its opening. At 9$ each I am glad I only bought one. I wish it was about twice the size that it is. The catalog says a friend of CLC hand makes these eyestraps. To install them the strap is simply epoxied in place.

All I have done building wise this week is plane the deck/hull junction on the exterior. There is a slight overhang in a couple spots that needed trimmed down.

50 hours. Bulkhead installed

This weekend I installed the bulkhead and sealed the aft compartment watertight with a epoxy fillet around the bulkhead. Since I decided not to install a deck hatch to the rear compartment this was a slight deviation from the plans.

I also made a fillet way up in the forward bow area all the way forward on the hull to deck joint and in the furthest aft area as well before the bulkhead install. The instructions dont say to do this but it sure gives me peace of mind that the joint wont come apart. Its difficult to get epoxy spread nicely so far forward inside the boat but it was worth the effort.

49 hours.

This evening UPS delivered the fiberglass tape I was missing. Chesapeake Light Craft says my kit should have shipped with a full roll of the FG tape plus some extra that is hand rolled and packed with the kit. My kit slipped out the door with only the one roll. You can see the little roll of FG tape in the pic below, thats all that i needed.

I got to work right away on the port side seam. Fiberglassing this inner seam is the most uncomfortable part of the build. You have to be able to reach inside the boat as close to the ends as possible to lay the epoxy fillet and the glass in the seam. In the picture above you can see the required items for the job and some of my special hand made tools for reaching far into the boat. In the picture I am actually finished with the job, its the far left seam.

Here is a close up of my tools. Just a 1" brush and a tongue depressor glued to some sticks. Another trick the instructions show is to pre-cut the tape to length then roll it up and place the tape right into the mixed cup of epoxy to pre-soak it. Then, place the roll at the aft end of the seam and roll it out along the seam. You then only have to wet out any dry areas which means a lot less time spent with your head and arms in awkward angles reaching inside the boat. Its just messy, gloves are a must.
If this side cures fast enough, I may do the opposite side right before i go to bed tonight.

Edit: I did get the other side done tonight, glad that step is over.

47 hours...waiting...

Its 50 degrees outside, a beautiful day for working on the kayak in the garage. I cant do anything though. My kit must have been short stocked of fiberglass tape because i am 5 ft short of enough to fiberglass the seams of the deck/hull mating. I havent deviated from the instructions in fiberglass tape use so I must have been shorted. Annoying. I am awaiting more to be shipped to me. Bummer. I did spend an hour removing the wires and stretch wrap tape in prep for fiberglassing the joint.

45 hours. Mating Hull and Deck

Finally, some temps above freezing. I can heat the garage without ice backing up on the gutters making ice dams. Hope to work on the kayak a lot this week, supposed to have 40-50 degree temps all week.

In the photo above the deck is ready to wire and tack glue to the hull. The wires are ready to pull the two halves together. The wood between the hull and deck holds them apart enough to apply the glue in the fore and aft sections where glue cant be applied from the cockpit access.

Here I am applying the epoxy to the hull in the bow area. Next, I will remove the wood spacer and twist the wires together after careful alignment.
After all the wires are twisted together I applied stretch wrap tape over the hull and deck to further secure the two together.

Roof Ice Dams

Be careful if you heat your garage when there is snow/ice on the roof. Heating my garage this week with lots of snow/ice on the roof caused big ice dams at my gutters/soffits and the melt-water then had no place to go but seep up inder the shingles and tarpaper and has caused a couple wet spots on my ceilings. I have two puddles in my attic near the eaves of where two roof valleys come together

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fyNHR7xXac

So until the snow/ice on my roof melts I am not heating my garage. So the kayak is on hold again.

43 hours. Interior fiberglass

I didnt work on the WoodDuck at all last week. The temps were below zero at night and single digits during the day and since the next step involved fiberglassing which needs at least 55F my heaters just cant compete with temps that low, so nothing got done.

This weekend I fiberglassed the cockpit of the hull interior and encapsulated the entire hull interior in epoxy. 2 coats are recommended I did 3 coats in the cockpit and two on the rest. You can see the results up close in the photo below, the fiberglass weave has almost completely disappeared.

I also wet out the fiberglass tape in the deck seams and encapsulated the underside of the deck with 2 coats of epoxy, which really makes the Sapele wood grain pop. I didnt sand the glass tape seams on the underside of the deck much at all. I figured no one would see the underside of the deck so I only sanded enough that it wouldnt be rough on the paddlers knees if they rub on the underside. I've noticed my fillets are a little larger than others I have seen so my WoodDuck is not likely to be the lightest one ever built but I bet is rugged and lasts for a long time.

I should be just about ready to attach the deck to the hull sometime this week. Man, my shop is a mess, someone should clean it up before I trip on something......again.