Cockpit coaming

The cockpit coaming is the only part not made of cedar.  A hoop of ash was bent around a form after soaking in hot water. After it dried, I took it home and drilled and sanded it. It's drilled to allow sewing the cover up to the cockpit.  The ends of the coaming are lashed together at the overlap joint.

Completing the frame

Today the frame was completed.  The floor pieces were lashed in, the foot braces were installed, the deck beams were cut, shaped and installed and the final tung oiling was completed.

The foot braces are attached with the only screws on the entire kayak.

Keel lashing and preparing floor runners and boards

The keel lashing is done through a hole drilled in the keel at each rib.

Floor boards and floor runner pieces were cut and sanded.

Lashing and tying

A total of 271 rib to keel or stringer intersections have to be lashed and tied together. A box lashing is used.

The stringers were tapered down at the bow end.

Ribs and keel

Today the shape of the hull was formed.  The keel was cut and installed and then 5 key station ribs were put in. The stringers were put on these ribs and then the remaining ribs were fit into this structure.

Finishing deck assembly

Day 5 had a variety of tasks getting ready for ribs tomorrow.  The rest of the frame to gunwale lashing was completed, the first coat of tung oil finish was applied, the stringers were prepared, and the pulley was put in.

The stringers were made from square stock run two passes through a shaper to make a round (to the left of the frame).

This pulley will have a rope installed so you can pull your baggage or flotation bag up into the bow.

Deck frames

I put in the remaining deck frames, using a sight, scribe, cut, fit, shape, dip, drill and peg process. A careful marking and sawing with a fine toothed Japaneese saw are critical to this process.

After installation, the frames are drilled and lashed to the gunwales.

Gunwales

The start of something that looks like a boat happened today.  The gunwales were cut, smoothed out and routed to accept the ribs later. The gunwales are cut to the overall length of the kayak minus 26 inches to account for the bow and stern assemblies. In my case, the overall length is 15' 8", so the gunwales are 13' 6". Mortises are cut to accept the ribs every 4 inches.

Once the gunwales were prepared, they were assembled to the bow and stern to form the frame of the kayak. A temporary spacer was used to set the width, and then the first deck frame was cut and installed.

Stern assembly pegged and lashed in place.

Bow assembly pegged in place.

Frame with first deck frame installed.

Bow and stern assemblies

Day 2 was spent build the bow and stern assemblies and finishing up the sanding of the deck frames. No glue, screws, or nails are used in the entire kayak, just a few pegs and then things are lashed together. The stern joint was chiseled out to fit together.

Then holes were drilled for the lashings and it was lashed together. The lashing is arranged in a wye configuration, and then tightened by wrapping the legs of the V together. 

The bow has many more parts, with pegs between the upper, middle and lower parts to hold the alignment.

The frames are sanded smooth and formed with a flat spot on top to mate with the deck beam at the very end of the frame building process.

Baidarka building

I'm building a skin on frame Aleut Baidarka at the Skinboat School in Anacortes. The first step is to try out a variety of kayaks to see what characteristics are suitable for my purposes. The width plays a big part in the roll stability and the length and rocker affect the tracking and maneuverability of the kayak.

I paddled all of these (and dumped the red one getting in) and opted for stability over speed and good straight line tracking over maneuverability. The green one was closest to what will meet my needs.  I'll mostly be paddling up and down Saratoga Passage and going in fairly straight lines.  Mine will be slightly shorter, but the same width.

Back at the shop I started taking the roughed out parts and sanding them to final shape.

These parts will form the bow and stern assemblies, and frame the upper deck. The frame pieces are cut from naturally bent branches of cedar so the grain follows the shape of the part.

Aleut Baidarka

I'm going to Anacortes to the skinboat school (skinboats.org) to start building a kayak tomorrow!