First time in the water

Today we put the wood duck in the pond for the first time. We have never kayaked before so we can not compare it to anything but we both liked it very much. Donna thought it might be too wide for her, she said that her feet were too far apart to feel comfortable. I am trying to figure out if I can get a big walleye in this thing without tipping over. The more we paddled the more comfortable we felt. It seems to move pretty fast and I was stunned at how well it penetrates the wind.

I give special thanks to my lovely wife Donna who put up with all the noise, sawdust, and paint fumes. Thanks to my buddy Ted for all his technical support. And thanks to my Dad who helped me with tools and cedar strips.

I want to build another kayak for Donna but I think she wants to chose a more narrow design than the wood duck. In the mean time I will start hocking things on e-bay to raise some money for another build.

Lou

Bad paint job

Well I am finished messing around with this Supermarine paint for the deck. It is very expensive, the shipping and handling charge was just criminal, and it does not work like it is supposed to. I have sanded the deck smooth and repainted seven times. each time I have tried something different and each time it looks like crap.

Tomorrow Donna and I will take our ugly kayak to the lake for the first time and use it, ugly or not.

On Monday I will sand the deck smooth and start the long presses of varnishing. The old fashion way that has proven to work for many decades.

Lou

painting the deck

Well I have colored outside the box this time. The traditional method of finishing the wood is with marine grade varnish. It is a long hard process of putting on multiple coats of varnish and sanding between coats. Then after a year or two of use, you have to do it all over again to keep it looking good.

So my buddy Ted said that I should try a new clear paint that is supposed to be the new way to finish a wood boat. It's called Supermarine revolution 1000.

The first coat went on great and when it dried it looked perfect. Smooth as glass and a wet gloss shine. I needed to put on a second coat to get the UV protection needed for the epoxy and glass cloth underneath. The second coat did not turn out very good at all. Ted thinks that it might be the high humidity on the day that I painted. Maybe I should have painted in the basement with the AC running.

I will wait a few days for the clear coat to cure and sand it smooth again. Maybe I can get a day with low humidity to re-coat the clear again.

Lou

painting the hull bottom

Well it's been a few weeks sense my last post. I have been sand, filling, and sanding again almost every day.

I just painted the hull bottom about an hour ago.

I could have left the hull a natural wood grain finish but I had some ugly spots that I wanted to hide. The beautiful cedar deck will be done in clear to show the natural wood.

Another reason I painted the hull white is for safty on the lake. White sticks out like a sore thumb on the water. So if a boat runs me over, he can't say that he did not see me.

Tomorow I will sand the white with a 320 grit sand paper and then apply a second coat.

I just noticed that this photo showes some other projects that are going on in my man cave.

fill and sand

Fill and sand, then fill and sand again, and fill and sand some more.

Each time it looks better than the time before.

I am in too much of a hurry to get this kayak into the water. I have to force my self to take the time to do it the right way, and not just the fast way.

It is paying off to do a quality job because each day it looks nicer than the day before.

sanding the deck

Today is Fathers day so before having

four generations of Farhoods over for dinner, I was able to start sanding the deck.

This was just a rough first sanding with 80 grit sandpaper.

Next I will fill in some open joints with epoxy thickened with wood flower. When it hardens I will sand it smooth again and repeat this until all the holes and cracks in the joints are full.

The purple heart wood looks very nice but it is very heavy and hard to work with.

glueing the deck

Today I started to glue the deck to the hull. This is a huge milestone.

This is the toughest part of the build. If you follow the instruction book you will end in disaster. After seeing the trouble others have had on the kayak forum, I needed to find a better way to match the sides of the hull to the edge of the deck.

I came up with a procedure that works much better.

By mid week the hull and deck will be one structure.