The Launch!!

After putting on the foot pedals, the boat is entirely functional. There is still plenty of work to do:

• Install hatches and bulkheads
• Sand, Sand, Sand and apply spar varnish for final finish
• Install deck rigging and hand toggles

But! It is entirely functional, so I could not wait to take it out and see how it would go. Would it track straight? Would it leak? Would some seam bust when under the first strain?

We put it on top of the Mini Cooper. Got to admit, that was pretty cool to me. Matthew helped, but super easy to do on my own. I figure the boat is about 40lbs. We drove over to Walsh Landing in Lake Austin, dropped off the kayak and parked.

Matthew graciously let me go first - I think it was his little payback for me doing most of the un-fun sanding work. I gingerly climbed in, worried that I might put my foot through the floor! Whoa! It's tippy! The cockpit opening is smaller than I expected too. If I was a big guy, it would be a tight fit. Then I start paddling. Whoa! This thing is fast!! That's the flip side of tippy... the boat is long and skinny, good for fast! And as I get used to it, I see it has good secondary stability. Meaning once you've leaned a little, you get a second solid support. The other side to long and skinny is that it doesn't turn very easily. For distances, it turns reasonably well, though in wide sweeps.

Paddling along was effortless, even with a slight wind in my face.

Matthew took a turn. The boat looks very cool as he paddles off. It will look even better once I get hatches and deck rigging installed. Matthew finds it very easy to paddle too, and the foot pedals have adjustable range that will fit both him and I.

Very Cool!! Very happy with the first ride. I haven't been in a "touring" kayak in a while, and I'm really looking forward to a LONG ride.

Catching up....

Haven't blogged in quite a while. Progress was less dramatic, and very busy. One thing we learned is that no matter how easy the step in the book looks, every step has plenty of opportunities for frustration. In the end, everything came together. The biggest frustration by far is working cleanly with the epoxy. It drips, sags, gets little air-pockets,etc. I spent hours and hours scraping and sanding drips and sags while the epoxy was a little green. Matthew was kind of disappointed because the finish (even with sags and drips) is very pretty, but not after scraping and sanding. I promise him that in the end, the final varnish will make it all beautiful again.

Steps to catch up to date:

Glueing the deck seams, and then glueing the deck to the hull. I was worried about this because the hull had flexed a bunch as weeks passed and the center of the hull was a couple of inches wider than the perfect fit, and this also meant the tips were 1/4 inch or so short. But, with gentle pressure and about 10 wires, we got the hull and deck to fit pretty well. Glueing the inside seams required building an extension pole with a syringe on the end, and then sort of blindly running glue in the seams. Did that, and taped the inside seams as far as can reach, and it all seems fine. Had to file the tips a little but in the end it looks great - no problems.

Glassing the deck. More sanding prep work, then draping fiberglass over the deck and wetting it out. I thought this would be harder to get the glass to lay well, but this actually was not bad. But, we put the epoxy on way to heavy. Looked great as we feathered it out, but next morning, huge drips and sags. This resulted in many hours of scraping green epoxy. Biggest advice I could ever give - when applying fiberglass, block out 3 or 4 days when you can do it, and put on THIN coats successively. It will look a lot better and save huge amounts of sanding.

Cockpit coaming. This was actually fairly fun to do. Kit comes with some prefab half-ovals, but since the deck flexes to fit the hull, you have to measure and cut, with bevelled edges to fit right. Glue on lower coaming pieces one night, and the top those with upper thin pieces another night. Glassing the coaming was difficult because it required overlapping pieces in several sections, but it all worked out.

Install seat. This required cutting some planks to glass and glue in as hip braces first. Sounds simple in the book, but trying to glass and fillet the back side of the braces (between the brace and the hull) was impossible. Did it totally blind and have little faith it is well constructed. But front went well and hopefully will hold it. Then holes are drilled in the hip braces, and the seat is bolted into the braces. A strap eye is also screwed under the coaming at the back. The book gave no clue how to drill a pilot hole when drill won't fit in the boat to do it. In the end drilled as best as could a hole at an angle and was able to attach it. The back of the seat is attached to the eye with some thin cable. Thermarest pad glued to the bottom. All good.

Mount foot pedals. Finally something that really was easy. Drill two holes on each side of boat (scary), seal the hole edges with a little epoxy, and then screw a runner on the inside of the hull that foot pedals attach to. All good.

Now all caught up.