False Start

A couple of weeks after beginning the second kayak build, I undid all of the work and started again. We had a couple of fair weather days at the weekends so I took some time out to make walkways around the vegetable beds before Bridgit started planting up all of the seedlings. In the meantime, I tried to scarf all the kayak pieces up during the evenings.

I was not happy with the results, though. I was getting air locks in the hardener pump and once batch of epoxy just didn't go off, even after 72 hours. I'd used it to scarf the sheer clamps and also to repair a patch of the glass butt joint on the bottom panels that had air bubbles in it.

I decided to take drastic action. I cut out a section of the bottom panels 9" (225mm) either side of the 'bad' join and put a new 18" (450mm) section of ply in the gap. I also decided that supposed speed methods (applying glass to both sides of the join at one time) was actually sloppy, messy and would use more time in cleaning up and making good later.