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Thread: New Boat 4 Matt

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    38

    Default Stitch & Glue Kayak Build

    Planning on building a stitch and glue Wood Duck 14' kayak from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit. Hopefully, a big improvement in performance from my inflatable Advanced Elements kayak. The Spaulding Marine Center in Sausalito is doing a boat building class March 11th - 22nd, https://www.clcboats.com/boatbuilding_classes/833.html Taking the class gives me some guidance from the class instructors and will help with my confidence in doing this project myself. I've considered doing this in my garage but imagined a half finish project that sits around while I go sailing. This way, I'll put in two solid weeks to get the kit assembled and epoxy done. Then, another two weeks varnishing at home. Skipping the Round the Rocks race this year since that Saturday is an 8 hour build day for the class.

    Planning on borrowing some spare clamps from Stephen and purchasing a few tools like a decent block plane and Japanese handsaw. The experience with marine plywood construction and repair, I figure will come in handy with maintenance on Starbuck.

    From the CLC plans, I made a 14 inch model from card stock that turned out OK. Making another model from Basswood to test out the varnishing process. Hoping to avoid some assembly problems and become more familiar with all the kit parts before the real kayak build in March. Planning on using some 20' x 10' plastic sheeting to create a temporary cleanroom within the garage to avoid dust during the varnishing process.

    Any boatbuilding/finishing advice on the forum is appreciated.

    Cheers,

    Matt
    Starbuck ... Starduck
    Last edited by TinkerSSS; 03-12-2024 at 07:58 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    429

    Default

    Love it. Looking forward to updates.Name:  Bucky_Bird_1.jpg
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    38

    Default

    My old 5gal. tool bucket is useful but I wanted something a little better for the boat build class. Chesapeake Light Craft sells an Okoume marine plywood boatbuilder toolbox kit that caught my eye. https://www.clcboats.com/shop/produc...olbox-kit.html

    I got a little practice with this kit applying epoxy and glossy spar varnish to make the toolbox more durable. The results looked pretty nice.

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    Here's the toolbox before epoxy and varnish.

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    The old tool bucket is still useful but not nearly as pretty.

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    I like the duck image, maybe I'll do a Starduck inlay or graphic.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Bodfish, CA
    Posts
    433

    Default

    Hi Matt,

    Welcome to the opportunity to have fun and learn how to build smarter.

    I have a CLC expedition wherry that is inching toward the final stages of completion. The construction was started at one of the CLC classes that was offered at their offices.

    The marketing behind the CLC kits is that the boats can be completed in a week, or so, in one of their classes. My observation is that a hull can be completed in a week, but the final finishing will go more quickly and smoothly with a different approach. I learned a more efficient and better end product approach from videos and instruction offered by Russell Brown of PT Watercraft. The videos are presented in the Off Center Harbor website, a subscription website that gives videos and information without ads.

    Let me show examples of the differences between CLC and Russell Brown.

    The CLC approach is to assemble the hull in quick fashion, then try to glass and epoxy the inside with a multitude of joints and angles. The entire interior of your boat may be offered up to finish at one time. There will be a lot of angles, and fillets to come to terms with during one batch of epoxy cure.

    Russell likes neat and efficient efforts. Russell’s approach would be to glass the interior surfaces of the hull before assembly. Then, the interior work is limited to filleting and glassing the seams. The seams don’t all need to be completed on the same batch of epoxy cure. The effort to produce an interior that looks as good as the exterior is minimal.

    There are several books that are offered for sale at the PT Watercraft website. The videos were ones that set off the lightbulb in my efforts that I have room for improvement. I am an Off Center Harbor and purchased Russell’s books.

    The downside of not being diligent upfront os that more epoxy gets applied, more sanding is needed if you want the result to look good, and the overall completion takes longer

    Have fun.

    Ants

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Posts
    33

    Default

    Agree with Ants that Russel is a good resource. After having rolled-and-tipped LP previously, his roller- only method gave me a better surface on my last project. Maybe not so useful if you apply a clear finish.

    Sam

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    38

    Default

    Thanks Ants and Sam. Appreciate any feedback and will take a look at Russell Brown's techniques. This class we get two weeks with classes 4 hours M-F and a 10 hour build day on next Saturday for a total of 50 hours. Then, with the epoxy all done, taking home to do the finishing in the garage. Do you have any opinion about finishing with Epiphanes, for multiple coats without needing to waiting for drying, and last coat with a good UV varnish?

    Day 1 of class was yesterday. Only one other person in the class. The instructor and one other person helping with the builds will make the effort much easier than alone at home. Already feel a little more confident with cutting the edges with a plane. Once you start cutting, you don't get to uncut so the confidence of having someone with experience watching helps.

    The unpacking of the kit was already done in advance by the people at the Spaulding Marine center in Sausalito.

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    They saved us a couple days epoxying together the puzzle joints and already had this done for us. Spent the first 2 hours of class with my nicely sharpened new low angle block plane putting a 45+ degree angle on all the inside edges.

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    Spent the remaining two hours of class stitching together the hull parts.

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    Sprayed some water to help with torturing the Okoume plywood into the proper shape for the stern end coming together. Added some extra stitches as needed to make the shape.

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    First day's 4 hour progress was good with the hull parts mostly stitched together and started tightening to get all the seams ready for fillets. I'm a little sore from exertion during Sunday's RYC Big Daddy race and glad that the class was 4 hours not the 8 hours from a one week build class.

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    More build pics from the next two weeks coming soon.
    Last edited by TinkerSSS; 03-12-2024 at 08:47 AM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    38

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    Day 2,

    Tightened the stitches on the hull. Wrestled a little with the ends to get parts a close as possible.

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    Stitched together the deck parts.

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    Thickened epoxy between all the stitches for deck and hull.

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    Taped edges of hull and joined hull to deck with shrink wrap for overnight cure.

    Starting to look like a boat. Pretty good progress for two days with not too many difficulties.

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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Posts
    33

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    Matt,

    Haven't used Epiphanes, but I believe it offers good UV protection, so it should be fine to finish with several coats of that. If VOC's are an issue in your finishing space, System Three has a water born urethane that is easy to work with and has good UV protection. You can recoat it quickly, but it's only available in a mat finish.

    The boat looks great. Are there two different wood species there? Looks like mostly okume with darker deck panels?

    Sam

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay Area
    Posts
    380

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    Matt, please keep the progress photos coming. This is great fun to see and I’m particularly enjoying the images of the venue in the background. You’re working in the spar loft.
    Tom P.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    38

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    Thanks for the feedback. Waterbased Urethane would make the wife a lot happier with finishing the kayak in the garage than when I varnished that toolbox kit with some very smelly high VOC glossy spar varnish.

    The deck is Sapele wood to contrast with the Okoume hull. Should look really nice if I can keep the outside looking good before glassing.

    Day 3

    Sanding any sharp points from the epoxy between stitches and removing all the stitches. We were able to pull all of the copper with only one stitch in the bow that was embedded in epoxy. Nice HEPA filter sander that I don't have at home helped make the sanding quick and not dusty. Hearing protection and a dust mask were useful.

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    I did watch the Russell Brown's YouTube video on putting in perfect fillets but I could use some more practice. We tapped off the cockpit to keep the fillets a little cleaner looking where visible.

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    Laid down fiberglass tape over the fillets and applied clear epoxy. Fiberglass cloth over the entire cockpit area for reinforcement. The fore and aft bulkhead compartments painted with clear epoxy. Bow has a large excess of thickened epoxy for where there will be a carrying handle and for extra reinforcement when hitting anything while paddling. Cleaned any drips with denatured alcohol in the cockpit area before glassing.
    Today involved a lot of mixing thickened and clear epoxy. Went through a few pairs of disposable nitrile gloves and tried not to make too big of a mess. End of day 3 picture has more of the interesting Spaulding marine center loft background in the shot.

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