cheaterparts wrote:

erik the viking wrote:

cheaterparts wrote: - just hope I can stay upright on it it looks less stable every time I look at that narrow round bottom

Yours or the crafts?

could be ether I guess - I'm a little unstable most of the time

That the real reason for all the recent weight loss?

there's still action on the kayak build front with a few more bits happening
I got a layer of glass under the hatch seal supports -



and also got the rudder bush tube glued in place while that was going off I also got a layer of glass
around the inside edge of the coming and set it to cure over night



Saturday morning time for some sanding cleaning up the coming again which I was going to paint but it has come up better than I thought is would so
it will stay the std wood colour and cleared



now for the rudder I pulled the rudder out of my Profisha 525 - cut the bush tube to length and slid the rudder in
that fits mint - I was going to upgrade the profisha rudder anyway to one of Eoins specials - so it looks like the stealth rudder will have a new home
the pivot is set about 65 cm in from the rear edge of the kayak





the rudder bellcrank housing is glued up and curing as I post this - it will be fitted to the deck under the smaller
most rearward hatch - hopefully this arvo - then maybe the deck and hull might be getting stuck together
maybe tomorrow



just setting up to get measurements - the std 525 rudder has about 10 mm of clearance under the hatch lid
and theres enough roon for the bell crank and a couple of nuts -- perfect !

So the deck and the hull are now joining up - with the edges of both sanded up and ready for glassing the deck was taped together with the hull pulling the gaps at the shear as tight as possible





some thickened epoxy was put at both ends and a seal of duct tape applied around the shear to stop the epoxy just running through the gap



the hull mounted on one side and some fibreglass tape run along the inside and epoxied together



inside of the LHS now glass taped once that goes off I'll do the other

Have you logged the hours you've spent on this project Cheater?

Looking good, i bet the excitement is building towards it's maiden voyage

Is the top of the rudder tube above the waterline Cheater or do you have O rings inside the tube?

happyas wrote:Is the top of the rudder tube above the waterline Cheater or do you have O rings inside the tube?

the tube is above the water line but I have made a sealed to the hull housing like the stealth rudder housing so any water can only exit back through the rudder shaft
it wont run in the hull

Galey wrote:Have you logged the hours you've spent on this project Cheater?

no but it really came along pretty quick - the biggest thing that takes time is waiting for epoxy to go off you can spend 1/2 and hour then wait over night for the epoxy to go off
things like stripping the hull and deck go surprisingly quick once you get a plan nutted out and the Paulownia ( wood ) is quite easy to work with - very few knotty bits and it planes and works well

just a note a second boat would be quicker as this was the first I was learning on the job

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I got the second side glass taped after fishing yesterday - after my morning coffee I'm going to rip all the sticky tape off the boat before heading to work

next chore is to prep the outside shear lines maybe a very small amount of filler and then a glass strip has to go around the shear - I've picked up some hard wood to do the end sections that will take a bit of time to shape up and stick on then it will be a boat ready to fit out -- bulkheads - seat - rudder pedals and cables

well moving right along with some more bits

I've fitted a some hard wood ends on I guess the bits that may get a bit of a touch from time to time



the rear section glued and shaped up this will get a final clean up and a hole drilled for the rear carry handle before being sealed on with glass





and the leading edge again pretty much shaped up with a small section of hard wood along the edge that may hit the beach
a hole also needs to go through the front just behind the front hard wood section for the front handle

next mission to sand the hull ( which I've started ) seal along the shear with glass - seal the hard word ends and do another fill coat or 2 to sand the glass steps out before
clear coating the outside with 2K clear

so it's getting closer

on the week end I got the bottom all sanded up and also sealed to outside of the shear line and glassed the hardwood ends at the same time
there was a couple of yucky bits in the bottom which I patched up last night just needs a sand up and maybe another fill coat to get it really smooth for painting with clear 2K



Tonight I pulled the boat out sat it of the grass and climbed in for the first time and it is a good fit - got the wife to mark where my heels fitted so I have an idea where the rudder pedals need to go
and I cut out the bulkheads and will need just a small trim before they get glassed in




So it's progressing well I'd like to think it will be really to test fly by the end of the month -

Wow! That looks pretty slick.