So tonight it was out with the drill and the cable ties and time to stitch the panels together.
It was a fairly easy process, I marked out the chine edge on the bottom and side panels with a straight off-cut of ply, following the curves so that the holes would match up. The instructions say to start at the stern and work forwards. This made for wobbly initial progress, 14' long thin ply planks have a mind of their own.
The last part to go on was the transom, after bracing the gunwales 610mm apart. All of a sudden this loose and floppy mess held its shape and I could see how it could become a kayak. I kept the stitches fairly loose, I won't tighten them until I've made a few adjustments and got a good test fit of the deck beams and bulkheads.
Tomorrow I'll buy the softwood for the inwales, cockpit stringers and runners and get everything aligned ready to start filleting and taping the main seams. I'll also add photos to this post, I can't seem to do it from home since changing ISP.
It was a fairly easy process, I marked out the chine edge on the bottom and side panels with a straight off-cut of ply, following the curves so that the holes would match up. The instructions say to start at the stern and work forwards. This made for wobbly initial progress, 14' long thin ply planks have a mind of their own.
The last part to go on was the transom, after bracing the gunwales 610mm apart. All of a sudden this loose and floppy mess held its shape and I could see how it could become a kayak. I kept the stitches fairly loose, I won't tighten them until I've made a few adjustments and got a good test fit of the deck beams and bulkheads.
Tomorrow I'll buy the softwood for the inwales, cockpit stringers and runners and get everything aligned ready to start filleting and taping the main seams. I'll also add photos to this post, I can't seem to do it from home since changing ISP.
See, I told you it was a kayak I was making!
No comments:
Post a Comment