Tisdag, 5th Juli

Ha! I'm betting that you didn't think you'd ever hear from me again!

I think this - of all my blogs - will best suit hosting my latest adventure... building a kayak from scratch. Hmm, that may be a cooking term, and not a real woodworking term, but - I'm not a real woodworker, so what the heck... I'm not a real cook either, lol.

So from this day forward - until my craft is launched anyway - I will post the progress of my handiwork here.

First, lets back up a little bit:

Alex built his kayak a couple of years ago in the summer of 2007. He launched his kayak in June 2008. It is a sweet kayak designed by The Newfound Woodworks, Inc. folks in Bristol NH. Check them out! http://www.newfound.com/ .

Maiden voyage of Alex's kayak, June 2008

After the interesting experience Alex had building his boat, and his joy in paddling it (not to mention the fact that it is gorgeous and only weighs roughly 43 lbs); and, being no longer interested in straining to paddle the 17 foot, hard plastic sea kayak around; and, it taking way too much effort to load the darn thing onto the top of the truck, I thought I needed to build one too. So I mentioned it to Alex a while back. After careful consideration, he agreed that I could build one... that I would have to put aside the computer, and spend my evenings working on the kayak instead of catching up with the splendid young dancers on So You Think You Can Dance, or whatever other "entertainment" in offered in summer on the tube. He finally consented to mentoring me through building my own kayak. YAY!

We picked up the bits and pieces we had ordered from the company on July 2, and set to work. Since "we" already had the forms and the experience, my kit was a little pared down from the one Alex got. Everything one needs - outside of tools and basic woodworking knowledge - is included in the kit. We reviewed the DVDs, read through the booklets of instruction and set to work.

Strips of cedar - it takes a lot of imagination to see a kayak at this point

Day one:  Cleaning out and repositioning stuff in the garage. Then a shopping trip to HD to buy 2x4's (just a little comment here.... I cannot imagine building a house with the "premium" quality of 2x4's offered there). Oh, it is a beautiful stack of gleaming wood - but viewed individually, the flaws are pretty glaring. We chose five or six of the best we could reach, and left shaking our heads. I won't document each trip to the store for every item - you know what it is like.... oh, screws... oh, glue.... do we need some _____? Two trips into the store - at least we hadn't left the parking lot yet - and we were armed and ready to start the Project Sea Wolf - Part Deux.

The first actual construction is building the base on which the kayak is positioned on so that one (or more) can stand upright to do the work. We manufactured the "saw horses" - not the traditional kind, but the kind you need to screw long planks of plywood to in order to form one long table as a workbench. And it has to be level in all directions. And it has to fit a 17 foot kayak on it. Preferably out of the elements and such that you could walk around it with tools in your hands without getting hung up on hoses, etc. Something like this:

Base for kayak construction July 2, 2011

Day Two: Dig out the forms and assorted necessary bits and pieces from Alex's stash of kayak building paraphernalia. The old duct tape needs to be removed from the forms and replaced with new tape. 

All the excess dried and hardened epoxy must be scraped off with the handy chisel. The forms need to be placed in the order they go onto the strongback (frame that holds the forms in place). Hmmm. Isn't there a guide for showing us how to do this? Yes, somewhere. A few moments pass while we figure out just where they might  be. Found them! But do they really help? After all it was four years ago... the information is slow to come to Alex's recollection, but most importantly, it does. So armed with a diagram of the parts, and a drawing of the stations where things are supposed to go (it is a multipurpose drawing for several models, so there is also some decision making involved in this part of the project). 

There are a couple of extra screw holes and blocks of wood - cleats - that were left over from Alex's kayak. We wonder where they go, and why those decisions were made. Once we have the strongback (lovely term isn't it?) screwed down, we are satisfied that we can rest. Besides, it's time to go celebrate our anniversary with a dinner at Luca's!

It's a little easier to picture the kayak now!