The kayak is a Seafox from Selway Fisher Design, and is 15' 8" overall. I used ordinary (ie non-marine) exterior 4mm ply. The plans say it can be done with 3 sheets, but I found the cockpit "rings" wasted a lot of ply, and eventually used 4 sheets.
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October 5, 1999. Scotland gets an Indian summer as I begin marking out the panels. You can just see the panel pins which I used with a plastic curtain rail to draw the curves.
The kayak is a Seafox from Selway Fisher Design, and is 15' 8" overall. I used ordinary (ie non-marine) exterior 4mm ply. The plans say it can be done with 3 sheets, but I found the cockpit "rings" wasted a lot of ply, and eventually used 4 sheets. |
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The 16 panels have been taped and epoxied to form 8 planks for the hull. The dark bits are where I used up some leftover epoxy. At this stage I still hadn't learned how to judge the quantity.
I found that shallow containers which once held 2 litres of ice-cream were better than deep tubs as the epoxy didn't start to "go off" so quickly. |
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| I used West Systems epoxy which was the only brand available in the Edinburgh area. It is notoriously exothermic and if a deep container was used the result was a smoking hot tub.
I also learned that a hairdryer was essential for working with epoxy through a Scottish winter. Otherwise it just went on far too thick. I bought packs of disposable paintbrushes rather than try to clean epoxy from brushes after every session. |
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| Now the hull is half stitched. This is an awkward job for one man as the hull is very floppy and requires supporting in several places. If you were making several boats it would be worth making some kind of jig. | ||||
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At this point the hull is fully stitched and you can just see the wire stitches which are green. At 100mm intervals, this means there are about 350-400 stitches in all.
As I had planed the panels in pairs I had very little trouble at this stage making the hull true, but tightening/loosening a few stitches was necessary. |
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The three bulkheads are fixed in place along with the upper foredeck beam and the inside of the hull is taped and epoxied. | |||
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Taken at the same time as the shot above, showing underside of hull with centre runner. Two side runners to follow. | |||
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Fore and aft starboard decks and footbar. If I was going to include a rudder it would have to go in now.
After paddling the boat a couple of times I realised it really needed knee braces. |
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Cockpit coaming built up from ply "rings" and apertures cut fore and aft to take hatches. Ready for undercoat, after about 41 hours work. | |||
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As above. |
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| May 21, 2000. Launched at Ratho, near Edinburgh on the Union Canal. Christened 'Peigi' after my grand old mother-in-law in the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
The boat was taken to Lewis that summer and tried out with some gentle coastal paddling. Some shots in Lewis 1 2 3 |
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| One thing leads to another......
My pal Jim paddles the 'Katie', a twin sister for the 'Peigi', which I built over the winter of 2000-2001. This boat went to Lewis that summer and was tried out on an overnight camping trip. Sadly, there are no photos of this trip, but I hope to do better in 2002. |
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