Day Seven - end of project

First job of the day was to epoxy the entire hull. This I did using a spreader and smoothing off with a foam brush - it seemed to work quite well and I made some drip barriers with masking tape to stop runs down the sides.

In hindsight I'd have been a bit braver with the amount of epoxy - it was ok but I could have flooded the surface more - I was conscious of the amount of resin I had remaining so was possible over cautious.

I used the remaining epoxy on the decks and as this was the last bit made sure I used it all up which gave a better finish - but there was still the varnish to come.

With the current pandemic I was unable to get traditional varnish at the moment so I used a water based outdoor varnish to give a protective coat to the epoxied hull.

It is very thin ans whilst it probably does the job I will be over coating the hull with some 'proper' varnish as soon as I can get some.

But seat fitted - footrest in place - job done - waiting on some fittings for attaching the painter but ready for her sea trails as soon as lock down permits.

Day Six

Started by sanding the whole hull ready for taping the joints.

I then covered all the joints with glass fibre tape and epoxy.

This involved nearly 25 metres of tape...just putting my back into shape with a cold beer.

Tomorrow - sand the hull to smooth out and epoxy runs and take the edge off the tape and then an overall epoxy coat. - and leave to dry

Day Five - well six really

Took a day off yesterday to do something else that needed doing so Day Five in build terms,

The decks went on last thing on Day Fur but I forgot to take a picture of them

They were bonded and nailed to the inwhales and left to cure.

Today I trimmed the overhang and sanded the deck joints fairly smooth - the whole boat will need a big sand before the next stage

I then fitted the coaming around the edge of the seating position this was a pre formed double section that needed to be encouraged into place and secured with screws into the deck beams

Over the top edge of this I fitted the lip that would take a skirt if I needed it to - again two parts of pre formed trim screwed into place with some clams to help it take up its shape.

The whole thing was then coated with clear epoxy which when tacky had a a fillet of thickened epoxy  pushed into the joints. I will leave this over night to cure fully.

Tomorrow's jobs will be sanding and shaping the coaming followed by a full sanding of the boat, before I glass the external joints and give the whole hull a good coating of clear epoxy prior to several coats of varnish.

Day Three - Kayak Project

Mixture of sunshine, showers and strong winds today - at one point I was holding the tent down as it was in danger of taking off.....

After cable tying the panels yesterday I employed another trick learnt from YouTube.

Mitre Joint glue

I used it to tack the panels together so I could remove many of the cable ties to make filleting the joints easier - it worked a treat.

Next in with the fore and aft deck beams.

Deck beams roughly in place

She is starting to look like a kayak now.

I removed a few more of the cable ties and tidied up the bow and stern panels using the mitre glue and some clamps before mixing up some epoxy to coat the inside of the lower hull.

Some thickened epoxy followed which I ran into the joints of the panels to give an initial fillet.

I will leave this over night and tomorrow I will remove all the cable ties and run a thicker fillet of epoxy along the seams as well as some glass tape to bond the underside of the deck beams.

Progress is good.

 

Kayak progress

Rain and other jobs caused a bit of a halt but since last time I have nailed and glued the inwhales tp the side boards. They add stiffness to the side boards as well as forming a shelf onto which the top deck is secured

Once the epoxy has dried overnight I cut off the ends flush with the boards.

The next job was to join the two bottom panels, which required holes to be drilled along the edges and I then used cable ties to link them together.

The side boards required connecting in the same way which required some tape and lashing to hold things together temporarily.

Temporary lashing

Side and bottom panels connected

Hull taking shape

With the addition of a temporary T piece in the centre of the flooring and with the cable ties adjusted the hulls has begun to take shape.

You can see in this photo an enlargement showing a tip I picked up from YouTube - using small sections of old pipe to maintain the shape of the hull.

Taking shape - using pipe spacers

Rain stopped play, even under my awning to everything was left covered over. The next job will be to see in that mitre glue and spray will tack the wood together so I can fillet the epoxy along the joints in one go - or will I have to epoxy in dabs before cutting the cable ties and filling in between them.

I have been told that I can't call this Project Noah and the kayak is obviously female to so
welcome to Project Nora.....

Well it's been awhile.....

For some reason I lost the impetus to blog last year and there is a whole years adventures to catch up on.
Perhaps in the current lock down I will get round to it. - It was easier to keep up to date when I carried the laptop on board and could post entries during down time .. well got some down time now.

Project Noah.

What I will be doing is recording the progress of Project Noah which will, hopefully, record the building of a  4.5m kayak whilst we are unable to go sailing.

The back story is quite amusing - my wife runs a gardening business and about 12 years ago, one of hers customers offered he a plywood kayak kit. He had bought it 30 plus years ago with the intention of building it with his son. It , like many projects, never happened and in lay in his garage gathering dust.

Thinking my elder son would like to take it on she brought in home. Elder son was always going to get round to it but.... and so it sat in our garage for 12 years or so.

A lock down tidy up brought it into the open and all the piece's were accounted for, save the glue which was a solid mass in its tin after all these years.

And so Project Noah was born.

Amazon and E bay provided a source of Wests Epoxy, mixing pots and all the necessary bits and bobs and so I started ..yesterday (Saturday 25th April)

First the workshop - at 4.5m the garage which is in everyday use is not an option

The office has a son working from home installed in it, together with a drum kits and other paraphernalia, so out came the very rarely used marque/gazebo that last saw action at Drascamp in 2016.

Once the 'double glazing' was installed I was ready to go.

I laid out the kit - and set up an epoxy work station to try and keep things tidy....well to start with anyway.

Sunday 26th April

Time ran out yesterday so today saw the first joints started - combining the four panels that may up the lower half of the hull into their respective 4.5m lengths. - I sanded the edges and put a slight chamfer on the edges to be bonded.

I also prepared and bonded the runners that give strength to the inwhales joint with the upper deck, using a thickened epoxy mix once the initial wetting coat of normal epoxy had gone tacky. - Clamps secured the joints and all I can do is wait for it to go off.

Hopefully later today I can carefully turn the panels over and bond the other side - giving a good joint so i can move on to the other panels that need to be joined before stitch and glue comes into operation to put it all together.