Not Finished Yet!!!

Just one more post to fill in the next steps in constructing a yak. When you get to the varnishing stage, any minute speck of dust will disturb the finished surface, to it is imperative that you work in a dust free atmosphere. The way to achieve this is to dust the table, blow dust off of it with an air compressor, mop the floor (twice) then put up plastic walls and ceiling to keep any stray dust particles from finding their way to the wet varnish. (If they can find a way, they WILL)


Before you start, you change into cleanly washed (dust free) clothes, spray water on the floor to settle and trap any dust, and then get out your foam brush and go to work. Also, because of the toxic fumes in the varnish, you wear a special respirator that traps the fumes and only gives you clean air to breath. It's really quite fun to be at this stage! One coat of var, then you sand everything with very fine sand paper (400 grit). After sufficient drying time, another coat, sanding, another coat etc. until you have 6 or 7 full coats on the yak. When I get to that point, I'll post again, and show how to finish installing the accessories.

More Yak Building

After the basic shape has been formed, the hull and deck fiberglassed, and everything has been given several coats of the epoxy, it looks like a kayak. Two hatches were cut in the deck which give access to storage space for food, camping supplies and other necessities. Also, the coaming was installed. This is the trim that goes around the opening where you sit inside the kayak. One thing that should be mentioned is that between every coat of epoxy everything has to be sanded which results in many hours of sanding. Because of the toxic epoxy dust this creates, much of this work was done outdoors. It is so nice that the weather cooperated. As you can see, it took a lot of clamps to to fit the flat coaming to fit the curved deck, and the hatch trimming around the openings for the hatches.

Kayak Building 101

Well, I guess that it is about time for me to post a bit about my most recent project / experiment / adventure / or whatever you want to call it. A number of years ago, I had wanted to build a canoe. Because of all that was going on at the time it was an impossible dream so we bought a canoe. Recently that dream was revived and I am beginning on the finishing stages of not a canoe, but a 17 foot kayak.
I have debated about how I should blog about this project since the blog runs backward in time but the kayak was built with time going in the opposite direction. What I have decided to do is post a picture of the kayak in a nearly finished state with one coat of varnish on it and five or six more coats to go. When the varnishing is complete, I will put the rigging on, the seat, the foot rests and a few other parts and it will be ready to throw in the water. Then I will go back and show a few of the major steps in the process of it's construction. The picture at the top shows the yak after it's first coat of varnish.

After ordering the kit which contains most of the materials necessary for construction I went to the lumber yard and bought lumber to build a table on which to build the yak. After constructing the 20 foot long and 2 feet wide table, I laid out the wooden parts that came in the kit. I then began to fasten the parts together with epoxy and then I drilled small holes along the edges of each piece and wired the pieces together. After the pieces were wired together they were formed into the basic kayak shape. At this point, a mixture of epoxy and wood powder was used to fasten the pieces together. Then the interior was coated with epoxy. After putting on the epoxy, a layer of fiberglass was put on the bottom of the hull and coated with epoxy. It was nice having Daren there to help with this part of the project. The next step was to put the deck over the hull. It was nice to have a helpful wife to help hold the deck in place while it was nailed down.
After nailing down the deck it is covered with a layer of fiberglass and more epoxy. The fiberglass hanging down from the deck will be trimmed off. It is at this point that it begins to look like a real kayak. I wanted to do a little personalizing so I took some wood veneer and created a circular decoration which I epoxied on the front of the deck. Well, that is probably enough for tonight. Stay tuned for the next installment coming soon to a blog near you.