Project description
I want a wooden kayak built to my size, and I want it built properly rather than bought off a shelf. I paddle flat water — a wide river, a reservoir, sheltered bays in calm weather — so I am after a steady touring boat, not anything sporty. My working numbers are a hull around 4.8 to 5.0 metres long and 60 to 62 cm across the beam, with a shallow-V bottom and a little rocker so it holds a course but still turns when I lean it. I weigh 86 kg and I usually carry 20 to 25 kg of camping gear for weekend trips, so please size the frames and the plywood thickness for that load with a margin, not right on the limit.
The build I have in mind is the usual stitch-and-glue one: a set of station frames on a strongback, marine plywood panels cut to the pattern and wired together along the seams, fillets of thickened epoxy inside, then the whole hull and deck sheathed in glass cloth and epoxy. I would like the outside sheathed all over, with an extra strip of cloth along the keel line and at the stems, because the boat will get dragged up a gravel bank now and then. Finish is clear varnish with a UV filter over the epoxy, satin rather than gloss, in several coats with sanding between them. Please do not stain the wood — I want the plywood layers and the panel joints to show.
What the finished boat has to have:
— two dry storage compartments, bow and stern, closed off by sealed bulkheads, with round hatches I can open with cold hands;
— a cockpit rim I can fit a spray skirt to, an adjustable seat with a backrest, and foot braces set for my legs;
— deck lines and bungees fore and aft, plus a carry toggle at each end;
— a matching wooden paddle, around 220 cm, blades sheathed in epoxy, or tell me if you would rather I bought one separately;
— a launch test with me aboard and the load in place, so we can check trim and seating before I take the kayak away.
Tell me what plywood and cloth you would use, what the finished hull should weigh, how many weeks the work takes with cure times included, and what you need paid up front for materials. Photographs of a kayak you have already stitched and sheathed would help me decide.
The build I have in mind is the usual stitch-and-glue one: a set of station frames on a strongback, marine plywood panels cut to the pattern and wired together along the seams, fillets of thickened epoxy inside, then the whole hull and deck sheathed in glass cloth and epoxy. I would like the outside sheathed all over, with an extra strip of cloth along the keel line and at the stems, because the boat will get dragged up a gravel bank now and then. Finish is clear varnish with a UV filter over the epoxy, satin rather than gloss, in several coats with sanding between them. Please do not stain the wood — I want the plywood layers and the panel joints to show.
What the finished boat has to have:
— two dry storage compartments, bow and stern, closed off by sealed bulkheads, with round hatches I can open with cold hands;
— a cockpit rim I can fit a spray skirt to, an adjustable seat with a backrest, and foot braces set for my legs;
— deck lines and bungees fore and aft, plus a carry toggle at each end;
— a matching wooden paddle, around 220 cm, blades sheathed in epoxy, or tell me if you would rather I bought one separately;
— a launch test with me aboard and the load in place, so we can check trim and seating before I take the kayak away.
Tell me what plywood and cloth you would use, what the finished hull should weigh, how many weeks the work takes with cure times included, and what you need paid up front for materials. Photographs of a kayak you have already stitched and sheathed would help me decide.
Other / Miscellaneous Cash, Bank transfer
