Guillemot S&G Journal

INTRODUCTION

Years ago I built a 17 foot trailer sailer. It was a lifetime ambition to build a yacht and I did it. The experience wasn’t a lot of fun though, because it was relatively expensive and quite complicated: There were lots of bulkheads, fitting out and expensive rigging and sails, an auxiliary outboard and a trailer to attend to. It took ages to complete the project. While there were no regrets, I swore I would never build another boat.

A colleague bought a pygmy kayak stitch and glue (s&g) kit from America and started building it. The kayak looked really good and the Stitch and Glue technique, something I had never tried before, seemed effective.

I thought, “I could do that”.

Choosing a design was probably the hardest part of kayak building. There are heaps of s&g designs available. Some are exclusively kits and some have plans as well. There are a few free off the internet plans too (just search for free kayak plans). You would think that all kayaks should be fundamentally the same (being long and pointed) but there are subtle differences that target one aspect over another (load carrying vs performance, tracking vs maneuverability, simple easy to build lines vs aesthetics, some are wide but feel unstable yet others while being relatively narrow, feel stable, …). Not being able to see a completed kayak of each different design first hand and assess those subtleties for yourself by first trying it out, made design choice a bit of a gamble.

Sites I ‘surfed to death’ were:

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/

http://www.pygmyboats.com/

http://www.shearwater-boats.com/

At the pygmy site, there is a journal by Wayne Reinert, recorded as he constructed his Osprey standard. In my opinion, Wayne’s journal gives as good an idea of the s&g construction process/journey as any:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/wreinert/osprey.htm

Once you have built a kayak, be warned that the experience can be addictive and it is not unusual for a builder to then try some of those other designs and techniques (skin on frame traditional is fast and cheap and explores the traditional Eskimo roots of kayak building; strip building results in a breathtaking, beautiful craft and those baidarka designs pique the curiosity too).

Talking and thinking things over: what I really wanted was a cheap design to try out the stitch and glue technique. I wanted a kayak for the kids to promote exercise and something that they could use straight away, but still be useful to them when they grow to adult size. I live in Wellington, New Zealand where the weather is usually windy and the waves choppy, so I needed a good performance kayak. I expected the kayak would be mostly used for day trips, but I also wanted to try some expeditions. Marlborough Sounds, Marlborough Lakes, Abel Tasman National Park, Lake Taupo, Lake Tarawerera, Lake Waikeremoana ….. and indeed the Wellington South Coast are not far away and well worth exploring.

So, in short I wanted a high performing, low profile and cheap design. Nick Schades S&G guillemot, free on the internet seemed to fit the bill. I even emailed Nick directly and got prompt and authoritative answers to some fundamental newbie questions too (despite most of my questions being thoroughly covered under FAQ’s … Frequently Asked Questions .. duh!). So it was full speed ahead buying some 4 mm ply and some epoxy and having a go at building Nick Schades S&G guillemot.

I bought Nick Schades $15 US + $10 US post and packaging Kayak book. With a punitive exchange rate this ended up at $90 NZ which is a fearsome price to pay for any book. Nick’s book deals mostly with strip building techniques, but most of the procedures were relevant to my S&G project. The book essentially is the building notes for Nicks designs and I learnt more than a few tricks from it: the art of squeegie: wetting out fiberglass cloth with epoxy using a kind of plastic scraper; ‘dookie schmooze’: sawdust and/or shredded glass and/or microballoons epoxy mix for filleting seams/gaps/mistakes; making permanent tattoos under the fiberglass cloth using images on artificial rice paper; fitting out the cockpit with the most amazing, simple back rest …. in short Nick’s book was money well spent.

In the end, the project progressed very quickly and extremely satisfactorily. Reviewing my journal, most of the procedures involved about an hour of building activity followed by an overnight cure time before proceeding to the next step. This makes kayak building a great hobby as you can tinker away and with the odd concerted weekend effort you make steady progress.

The result was what I regard as a robust, high performance, pretty kayak that cost a quarter of the price of a commercial off the rack plastic fantastic. It was easy and fun to build and I would recommend having a go to anybody.

What follows is a journal record of what I did. Since there is more than one way to ‘skin a cat’ I am not promoting this as the consummate way to build a Nick Schade S&G guillemot. Indeed I did what I did, as a consequence of having read Nicks own journal of what he did to build the Guillemot and the experiences of George McQuade, both from the Guillemot web site. Hopefully the journal gives an idea of the time involved for each process and some of the mistakes I made and how I coped with them at the time. As they say “all care and no responsibility” …

LOFTING

[You can buy plans for the S&G guillemot directly from Nick Schade. That will save you some time and maybe some angst].

DAY 1. 11/6/2001 ¾ hour

Tacked two sheets of 4 mm ply onto my work table. Checked that the edges were lined up by ‘eyeing’ along the 18 foot edge. Then I marked out stations at 12” intervals and drew the lines across the sheets. The ‘cunning plan’ is to butt-join the 8 ft panel sections together with fiberglass backing on each side at the joins when the time comes. That means when it comes to cutting the panels, I will only be handling one sheet at a time which will be much more manageable than great big 18 ft long, scarfed sections. It will also mean that once I have ‘patterns/templates’ I can arrange them onto a sheet of ply in the most efficient manner. I also bought the cheapest ply available and I was having second thoughts about building the kayak with it. Making templates gave me the opportunity to try working the luan ply and consider whether this was the best material or not.

I spent 15 minutes after work plotting in the way points on 1 of the sheets (from station 0 – 96). The .01 “ are a bit of guess at times. I imagine having a scaling ruler marked out in 1/10” would make things easier. However, every now and then you get a .25” or .5” or even a .0”, which are ‘way’ easy. The results of the line when I joined the way points up (later) came out very smoothly, which was encouraging. This laying out the panels was not so hard.

Day 2. 12/06/2001 1 ½ hour

Plotted in the remaining way-points (except the 3 panels that are > 192 inches) I will tack the tips on later and draw those curves in then. I trimmed a 1.5 inch baton off the far-side of the sheets for ‘joining the dots’ with my skill saw. I have 2 x 8ft lengths and I was going to butt-join them into a godzilla 16’ ultra baton with a fiberglass tape join. However when it came to joining the dots, one 8’ baton seemed to be plenty long enough for the job.

As 2 ft of ply sheet was overhanging my budget table (24 “ wide), I trimmed that off with my skill saw. The off cut was unsupported and the skill saw tried to kick back a little, but now everything is looking neater, more manageable and accessible.

I swept up the saw dust (to save for saw dust coloured filling epoxy later) and prepared to finish for the day. However, a friend stopped by to see what all the racket was about, so I made him hold a batten against a series of nails that I had banged into the way-points that comprise the keel line of the bottom panel. I joined the dots and the first line (of the 8 panels) is completed and looks very good.

Got carried away and completed 3 more lines after work. Hard to find volunteers, but they aren’t necessary as I said: the way-points seem very accurate and no alterations/fine tuning were needed.

I have been banging in nails at each point. I tweak each nail into a vertical position. When I have a complete line of nails, I butt the 8ft baton against the nails. I hold the baton in place with 1 kg dive weights. I then draw the line over 5 stations (only have 5 spare 1 kg dive weights) and slide the baton along and draw in the next 5 stations of the same line until completed.

There are some curious bumps in places. I will double check these, but they seem to correspond to where the front of the cockpit might go and may well be deliberate. The proof of the pudding will be when the panels are all assembled.

Day 3. 13/06/2001 1 hour

Completed drawing in the remaining lines. I have to use my imagination a little as the lines from the computer print-out are stepped. However, what I see penciled out on my sheets looks like a good imitation. Tomorrow I will do the double checking and finish off the 3 short overhangs. Then I can begin to do some sawing. Took some photos of progress to date.

Day 4 14/06/2001 ½ hour

Double checked a couple of bumps and the way points were correct, therefore those bumps must be designed into the panel and I must live with them/leave them alone. Trimmed up one of the off cuts. Drew in the stations, way points and lines for the missing tips to the three longest panels. Before I start some sawing I will mark out the 5 bulkheads from stations 20, 60, 100, 140, 180 to be taken from the cross section table. I will put them temporarily into the hull with wire/hot glue wherever they fit while I am constructing the hull and deck. I am keeping in mind that I may have to account for the 4 mm thickness of my ply (assuming the cross sections are the outside measurements. I’ll mark the minus 4 mm option and reserve the right to trim to that mark on assembly day …. EEEEE wrong – see later).

Day 5 28/06/2001 incidental amount of time

After emailing Nick Schade and getting a favorable “it will withstand moderate seas (providing the kayaker is up to it) and will carry enough stuff (without the kitchen sink though) for a 3 – 4 day expedition”; weighing the pros and cons of the Guillemot design and dimensions in my mind and assessing whether it would be good for the kids; and sneaking around the Guillemot stitch and tape web site (there is a comment of the performance of the S&G Guillemot by Jim Mailer who modified his design: words to the effect that it was more stable than his Nordkapp). This information reassured me that the S&G Guillemot would be more than suitable. So as part of a trip out to Seaview I bought 5 sheets of Meranti Ply.

I have lofted the plans onto Luan ply, which would probably make a satisfactory hull in its own right. I also weighed up the possibility of making the second S&G Guillemot by buying 2 more sheets of Luan. That way I could use my lofted templates as they constitute half a kayak already.

However, I decided on using Meranti. It cost a little more, is a bit prone to splintering (until it has a good coating of epoxy/cloth). However, the outer veneer is much thicker than the Luan (that will help to not sand the veneer away when on serious sanding missions, like on sheer joins). I think the darker wood looks better, even though the Meranti is pretty straight grained and from a distance is likely to look like a red-golden boat, rather than a wooden boat. The Meranti is a little heavier, but that doesn’t matter so much as I am building a cruising kayak, not a racer. Another disadvantage of the Luan was that the colour between sheets was quite variable. Thus the Meranti was always going to be a better colour match and easier to get the grain to match between panels.

Cost difference between the two types of ply was immaterial as you only need 3 – 4 sheets for each kayak. Thus cost is relatively low compared to the epoxy, solvents, brushes and rollers, not to mention the inordinate amount of time 50+ hours that is going to be spent on the project. Might as well use the good stuff at the beginning!!

CUTTING THE TEMPLATES

Day 6 9/07/2001 ¾ hour

I cut half of my templates out of the Luan plywood, using my panel saw. Cutting the 1/8^{th “} ply is real easy, like a knife through butter. Some of the curves are curly whirly and will require a jig saw touch up to finish them off. The underside of the cut is a bit peely, but a light touch with my long rasp tidied them up very nicely.

The Luan is very rubbishy with ‘soft’ spots all through it. Thus, on reflection, I am glad that I made the choice to go for the Meranti.

Day 7 10/07/2001 ¾ hour

Cut the remaining sheet of templates out

MARKING OUT THE PANELS FOR THE KAYAK

Day 8 11/07/2001 - 1 ¼ hour

Trimmed up little cutting wobbles in the template panels by sanding, eye-balling and trimming with the plane where required. Then marked out all the panels necessary for a complete kayak. Needed 2 ½ sheets. Some panels (for some reason seemed to be 2mm long). I had focused on orientating the panels to the square end edge of the ply sheets and the 2mm error will have to be addressed later, somehow in the building process. The Meranti panels must have been just a little shorter than the luan panels. WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE WAS ANGLED THE PANEL TEMPLATES TO FIT THE PLY.

The panels are pretty curly whirly and don’t lend themselves to particularly economical use of space.

CUTTING OUT THE PANELS

I used a panel saw to cut my panels. I can cut straight lines and moderate curves accurately with the panel saw. I tend to wobble around my marked line too much with a jig saw and unless special care was made to support the cut, the jig saw would be prone to juddering. However, a jig saw would do fine. I thought that cutting was going to be a mission, but the panel saw easily cuts the 4 mm ply. Things can proceed much quicker if a second person holds/supports the off cut.

Day 9 15/07/2001 - ½ hour

Cut 3 panel-sections out of the half sheet. Only 2 sheets to go. Saved the saw dust to make into wood powder.

Day 10 16/07/2001 – ¾ hour

Cut 4 more panel-sections. Saved the Saw dust.

Day 11 21/07/2001 – 3 hours

Rotten weather weekend. All kid sport was canceled, so I recruited the kids to help me (by holding the panels as I cut them). This really helped a lot and I was able to cut out all the remaining sections in a 1 hour session in the morning. I went back in the afternoon and trimmed the panel edges with my plane. I aligned off cuts so that the grain was matched for the 6 little end pieces and cut them. Then I aligned and nailed all the starboard panels to my building table (to stop them moving about) and set them up ready for fibreglass butt joining. Unfortunately I had a meeting with an old cycling mate, so had to leave without actually doing the fibreglassing. Actually the weather was attrocious and cold, so waiting a day shouldn’t upset things too much.

TO BUTT OR TO SCARF?

It is normal practice to ‘scarf’ ply panels together. This is where you plane a bevel with a 1:8 slope on the edges of both panels [it is best to nail the edge that you are going to plane, flush with the edge of a table: this supports the scarf as you plane it and acts as a guide while you plane]. You glue both scarfs (planed faces) together so that you have a piece of ply as long as your longest panels. In the case of the guillemot S&G you also have to scarf an additional short piece onto the end as well.

Then you scarf up another set of panels for the other half of the kayak. When all that is done, you tack the panels one above the other, loft up the panel lines and jig saw both at once.

This technique ensures that you have proven strong bonds between your panels. The panels are mirrors of each other and a well-scarfed join can be almost invisible. The scarfing approach simplifies issues such as matching wood grain, matching ply faces (even in premium ply, one side of the sheet is always a better quality than the other - usually the side with the stamp on) and the number of components that you are going to have at any one time.

Bucking the trend, I figured that there would be a lot of left over ply, because the lofted plans for half a guillemot s&g kayak would only take up

2/3 the width of a sheet of ply. I thought by using butt joins, that I wouldn’t have to buy so many sheets of ply and I would only have to saw up 8ft lengths of ply at a time. I had scarfed panels for my trailer sailer and I was curious about butt joins and how strong they might be.

Butt joins were always likely to be plenty strong enough because the joins on one panel do not line up with any of the joins on the other panels. And I was going to sheath the hull and deck with fiberglass cloth as well.

In the end butt joins worked pretty well. At times there were a lot of pieces of panels after I had cut them ready for joining. There was also a bit of angst about which side went where and having left and right panels (with the good face of the ply on the outside). But it was easy enough to keep track of things by carefully pencil marking each panel piece as I went.

FIBREGLASS BUTT JOINS

Day 12 22/07/2001 – ½ hour

I Cut tape to length, dobbed epoxy on the joins and wetted out the tape. Here is my set up: A piece of Xerox transparency sheet is on the table, under each join (this stops the panel being glued to the table and mylar makes any epoxy that runs through the join and underneath, nice and smooth. Cling wrap works, but tends to leave a crinkley epoxy ‘footprint’ on the underside).

I nailed the panels in place on top of the mylar (4 nails adjacent each side of the joint beyond the mylar and one at the extreme ends) to stop the panels moving. I sand the butt join area where the tape is going to lie. This helps the epoxy bond somehow (whether it is the roughened surface or is just a clean up, I am not sure).

The nails that I used were the smallest brads that I could find. I don’t know how many stitching holes I drilled into the panels, but it would be as many as 300 or more. I figured that a little brad hole here and there wouldn’t make much difference. I later went around and filled any detectable holes with sawdust thickened epoxy. The stitching holes can only be noticed if you look very carefully close-up. As extra insurance I was going to sheathe the hull with glass cloth. So the moral of the story is if a strategic placed temporary brad nail is going to assist with the building process, then don’t hesitate.

[I had bought two rolls of fiberglass tape. One roll was 2 ½” wide and the other 1 ½” wide. For inside joins I used the wider tape. For exterior joins I used the narrow tape.]

I wet out the tape and brushed epoxy, 1 brush width beyond the tape on each side. Then I put a strip of Xerox transparency about 4” (wide) over the epoxy taped join. It helps to lay/roll the mylar from one side to the other. This helps reduce the number of pesky little bubbles. Then I push all the remaining air bubbles out from underneath the mylar with my fingers by ‘massaging’ the top of the mylar. Then I placed a piece of scrap ply on top of the Xerox transparency and a 2kg lead dive weight on top of the ply and leave it overnight. This applies pressure to the tape and epoxy, sort of like vacuum curing and leaves the glass pretty low profile.

Day 13 23/07/2001 – 1 hour

I carefully removed all the nails holding the panels in place. Using my flat paint scraper I feathered the fibreglass resin by scritching. This technique is very efficient and works well on the ‘green fibreglass’. The alternative is to wait 48 hours (otherwise the green epoxy clogs your sand paper and doesn’t sand too well), then sand the hardened fiberglass, which can be a bit of a mission.

Then I carefully flipped all the panels over. Day 13 blues. The Deck mid join didn’t actually snap, but creased and has a white line down the centre of the join. Not a total disaster. After I have epoxy butt joined the other side I will chisel out the white line and fill it with coloured epoxy fillet. I cleaned up the face and sanded it in preparation for epoxy butt-joining. Then I mixed up some epoxy and repeated the day 12 taping. ½ the panels completed. I will do the port side tomorrow.

Day 14 24/07/2001 – 1 hour

I took off the weights and cleaned up the panel surfaces. Then I traced a line around each panel so that I can mirror the panels for the other side. I lined up the port side panels with the shadow of their starboard sides and nailed them in position. I sanded the joins to be butt joined, did a quick double check and epoxied the first side. Tomorrow I will do the other side and the next day sort out my temporary bulkheads. Then I can start stitching the hull together. Apparently the Guillemot stitch and tape really can be a handful, so I am looking forward to the challenge.

Day 15 25/07/2001 – 1 hour

Same again. Scritched all the panel joins and then flipped them over to do the other side. Sort of creased the port deck panel too. I now think it is very important to roll the panels VERY carefully on their convex ROUNDED faces. Rolling them on their concave curved faces results in a twisting flip that does the damage. Hopefully I’ll remember to do them next time. Having two people perform the operation would help proceedings significantly.

Day 16 26/07/2001 – 1 ½ hour

Lofted up the temporary bulkheads. Ended up doing 0, 20, 60,100,140,180 and stern. Marked 4mm ply inside them (the thickness of the ply – EEEEEE wrong, a bad move – see later) and cut them out. I will band saw them tomorrow.

Assembling hull Stitching

Day 17 28/07/2001 – 4 hours

Nailed the paired (port/starboard) panels together and planed them so that they were perfect replicates of each other. Then I drilled holes in the hull and deck panels (at 6” intervals ¼ inch from the edge. At the curly ends, I drilled holes at 3” intervals over the last 12” – 15” of the bow and stern). The hull and deck panels now have stitching holes drilled all around their outer edges. Later, when I am assembling the kayak, the skinny side sheer panels are first aligned and then I drilled matching holes for stitching.

Because my butt joins, for some reason did not quite align perfectly, I marked the center of the deck and hull panels so they could be wired together to ensure that the panel tips would be adjacent to each other. Cut up 125 x 3.5 inch wire strips for the stitching. Then I stitched the hull panels together.

Each stitch uses a wire, which was first bent into a staple. I inserted the wire through the two adjacent holes (from underneath the keel to the inside and from the inside chines to the outside; this is so I could adjust them easily later). I used my pliers to then pull the wire tight/flush with the outside and put a couple of loose, clockwise twists in the staple. I loosely wired an entire seam and then come back and progressively tighten each wire twist until the right tension was achieved. I found that each wire tie was like a miniature adjustable clamp and I tightened or loosened each one appropriately to ensure that the join was tight and the kayak shape was true.

I left the panel edges square and tensioned the wire so that the inside edges butted snugly. This left a nice open ‘v’ to later fill with syringed epoxy to glue the seam and then sawdust thickened epoxy to fill the ‘v’ with a miniature fillet to ensure the seam was strongly bonded.

My stitching started with a little drama too:

I sewed two holes either side of my marked centers and tightened them to ensure the panels would remain tip to tip. Then I temporarily clamped the stern together. Great. Looks like half a kayak already. Did the same for the bow, clamped the ends together and whapp! The two halves clapped together like a rat trap!!. Yup I will be needing one or two of those temporary bulkheads.

Wired the biggest bulkhead in place. Small problem, I had assumed that the offsets for the kayak cross section were for the outside (Nick and George had both made reverse bulkheads) so had trimmed 4 mm off all my temporary bulkheads. Looks like that was not the thing to do. Nevermind, put the three biggest ones where they mostly fitted and wired them in place. Stitching proceeded well and I have a hull. Lined up the hull side panels and worked from bow to stern, drilling holes in the side panels to match those already drilled in the bottom hull, and wired the hull side panels loosely in place as I went. I temporarily held each panel roughly in place with imaginative use of clamps and duct tape as I stitched. Apart from a little gap 6” from the ends, all the panels fitted nicely together.

Day 18 29/07/2001 – 3 hours

Tweaked up all the stitches and ensured that the panels joined together nicely. Then I nailed the center section of the hull to my workbench with glad wrap underneath to stop the hull being glued to the table.

Nailing the center section of the hull took out a bit of a ripple that I had detected under the keel center section. This was a consequence of me cutting a wobble into the panels. When the hollow was tightly stitched together, it pinched the keel upwards in the central area. I wouldn’t have noticed this until I turned the hull over, if I had not detected the problem early by poking and prodding and eye-balling my hull. I did a lot of checking at each stage before ‘cementing’ the shape with filleting epoxy. I used sight to assess symmetry, but some builders confirm there are no twists in the hull by laying two bits of wood across the chines, either side of the cockpit area. If there is any twist in the hull the two bits of wood will look like an ‘X’ when viewed from the bow or stern. I felt that my kayak was always going to be pretty good, because I had matched and planed my panels prior to stitching. In the case of the hollow section under the cockpit, it was a simple matter of loosening off appropriate wires and holding the keel temporarily to my building table with the ever-useful brad nails.

[On reflection, I wondered if nailing the keel to the table took some of the intended rocker out of the hull. Next time I would still nail 2 ft either side of the center hull to the table, but I would also place a 4 x 2 underneath the ends to lift them up (and obtain the right amount of rocker). However, I think the rocker worked out just fine (I actually chose a part of my table that had a bit of a hollow in it, to nail the keel which would have served to help induce rocker anyway)].

I later filled the resulting small gap with sawdust-thickened epoxy.

Sawdust thickened epoxy: Nick calls this dookie schmooze. It is handy stuff and helps make your seams etc. invisible. I mix up a batch of epoxy, then thicken it with a few glue microballoons for seams and later for fairing applications with fairing microballoons. You balance the colour with saw dust. I made my saw dust as smooth as possible by whizzing them up in an electric coffee bean grinder. I found that roughly a 50/50 mix of saw dust and glue microballoons was about right. The fairing microballoons made the dookie schmooze lighter in colour and I had to add more saw dust to obtain the right colour match. The alternative would be to use some commercial filling compound like ‘epifill’ of the dreaded green bog that George McQuade used. The advantage of dookie schmooze is that you make it yourself as required and you can control the colour matching. Note: the colour matching is for the wetted out wood, which will appear darker than the dry wood.

Temporarily stitched the deck to the bow to figure out where the cockpit would be placed (from the drawings the front of the cockpit is 7’ 11 ½” from the bow). I did this so I could reinforce the cockpit ends with extra plywood plates. Nick used Kevlar tape on his s&g Guillemot, but I don’t have any lying around. Marked out the Deck and sides where the plates would go. Trimmed some scrap ply into a 3 ½” strip and cut the 8 reinforcing plates to fit the deck and hull panels (for and aft of the cockpit). Bevelled the plates on all four sides to help the tape lay, when I get around to it.

Ran a couple of syringe-fulls of epoxy along the keel to set the shape. Mixed up a couple of pumps of micro balloon glue and glued the cockpit reinforcement plates to the deck and side panels. Placed dive weights on each plate to facilitate the gluing process. Then made some sawdust + microballoon filler bog and bogged any gaps in the keel. Had a bit of epoxy bog mix left over, so filled the gaps around the bow and stern chines.

Assembling deck and mating it to hull Stitching

Day 19 03/08/2001 – 1 hour

Plan B – the big game plan

Back from a field trip to Gisborne. After much reflection and reading of Nick and George’s diaries, I will stitch the hull and decks, ensure that they will mate together and then set the kayak shape by epoxying all the seams (bar the sheer). I will epoxy the deck first and leave it to harden for two days. Then I will flip the boat and epoxy the remaining hull seams. Then I will pull the hull and deck apart and simultaneously fibreglass tape the inside deck and fibreglass cloth the inside hull. I will wire the hull and deck together while that sets. Then pull them apart once again to give the inside a couple of weave fill coats of epoxy. On the last coat of epoxy I will join the two halves together permanently. Do the inside sheer taping. Then that will leave me to epoxy cloth sheathe the outside, put the cockpit coaming on and it will be finished.

Removed the nails from the hull and reassured myself that the hull wasn’t glued to the table. Checked the temporary bulkheads. They would have been perfect if I had left them at the lofted size. I should have emailed Nick Schade and asked. Made do by holding the temporary bulkheads upright by putting a clamp sideways on the bulkhead above the sheer line to prevent the bulkhead falling over.

Then I wired the deck together. Looks grand. The x-factor will be finally resolved when I wire on the deck side panels and find that they meet nicely at the sheer. I am sure they will but don’t have enough time today.

Traced the outline of the cockpit from a copy of my Apteryx extreme down river racer cockpit. I know my spray skirt fits it and that I can fit into it cockpit space (admittedly with a bit of a struggle), so will model my guillemot cockpit on it.

Day 20 04/08/2001 – 2 hours

Wired the side panels together. There is no way that the side panels can be mated to the hull without at least a couple of temporary bulkheads. So left it at that. Takes about 1 hour to drill and wire up one side panel.

Day 21 05/08/2001 – 2 hours

Checked my temporary bulkheads for size and traced the shapes (this time without trimming 4mm) onto scraps and cut them out with the jig saw. Taped where epoxy from the seams might be an issue for the temporary bulkheads with Duct tape to prevent any gluing problems and temporarily hotmelt glued the bulkheads in place (with little blobs – too much hot glue becomes a nightmare to remove later).

Cut a hole inside my cockpit lines to get access to wire the inside sheer sections of the deck to the hull (as far as I could reach). Wired the bow in place. Wired the central sections and worked forward. One of my temporary bulkheads appears to need a trimming, otherwise it is looking good from the cockpit to the bow. I am sure the stern section will be fine.

Day 22 06/08/2001 – 1 hour

Resolved the bulk head trimming by not trimming and used brute force instead to push the side panel to meet at the sheer. Held it there with a nail through the edge of the temporary bulkhead. Continued stitching from the cockpit to the stern. Almost completed. But there is a bit of a battle developing at the stern tip: The deck panels do come together with a bit of squeezing. However, this results in an ugly extreme pitch and makes the stern very high. I can resolve it by stitching the deck centre join and leaving the deck chines overhanging the side panel. Once they are epoxied, it will be a small matter of planning off the excess. That will make the stern look more to plan too. So: nothing really major to deal with. One more lunch time and it will mostly just be a case of sploshing epoxy around.

Day 23 07/08/2001 – 2 hours

Just putting in a few more strategic, but awkward wires to hold the deck and hull together nicely at the sheer line. Then I Duct taped the intermediate space between the wires along the sheer line to further hold things in place. Spent the rest of the time tweaking the starboard deck chine and ends. Looking better and better. One more tweaking session and I will be ready to start pouring fibreglass about the place.

Got carried away and came back after tea. Completed the tweaking and used a syringe to epoxy all the deck joins (but not the sheer). Mixed up two pumps of epoxy and thickened it with microballoon, microspheres and a handfull of ground up saw dust for colouring. Used this fill the seams between the stitches and plastered that around areas where there were gaps and filleted the temporary ‘T’ overhang around the stern to hold things together. Will leave things for a couple of days before turning the hull and doing the same for the chines (keel already set by epoxy).

Day 24 09/08/2001 – 1 hour

Removed most of the deck wires. One or two snapped off and remain bedded in the epoxy. I expect and hope to be able to remove the offenders from the inside when I prepare for fibreglass taping the seams. Rest came out without too much bother.

Mixed up two pumps of dookie schmooze (epoxy thickened with micro balloons and ground sawdust for colouring) and went over the remaining unfilled seams.

Day 25 10/08/2001 – 1 hour

Flipped the hull and used a syringe to epoxy the seams, then mixed up two pumps of epoxy and made some coloured filler to fill the gaps and set the shape.

Day 26 13/08/2001 – 1 hour

I left the seams to harden for an extra day and then removed all the wires and pulled the halves apart. The hull and deck hold their shape well. The deck requires hardly any sanding before it will be ready to tape the seams. The hull will need some work.

Day 27 14/08/2001 – 1/2 hour

Weather is attrocious southerly and too cold for epoxy. I spent last night reinforcing the bedroom TV antennae arrangement in anticipation of the storm (instead of kayak building). Spent most of the day admiring my handiwork and did a little sanding of the inside fillets in preparation for a saturation coat and taping/sheathing. Started with a belt sander. Almost immediately dug a gouge and fortunately shredded the sanding belt. Didn’t take long at all to sand by hand. Just need to get a chisel to clean up the hard to get bits at the bow/stern.

Day 28 15/08/2001 – 1 hour

Weather is still bad, but I was bored, so I went ahead with a saturation coat of epoxy on the inside of the hull and inside deck. After placing strategic fillets about the place, I will sheathe the inside of the hull and tape the inside deck seams tomorrow.

Day 29 16/08/2001 – 2 hours

Did the fillets, did the cloth sheathing of the hull up to 1” above the chine and did the taping only of the deck inside seams. Used about a 1 litre of epoxy. Will trim the excess cloth from the hull in a couple of hours time.

The trimming is done by initially masking the area with masking tape (in this case 1” above the chine) before you wet out and after your saturation coat. Then you trim the glass cloth to go over the tape and wet out. After wet out, wait the obligatory 2 hours when the glass has cured enough to be stiff, which can then be cut with a firm cut using a craft knife.

A saturation coat of epoxy, prior to wetting out helps to stop epoxy being sponged away from underneath the cloth by wood and possibly starving the cloth of epoxy. The saturation coat also helps protect the wood when you cut the cloth with your craft knife. The object is to cut the glass adjacent the masking tape with enough pressure to completely cut the glass cloth, but not gouge the wood underneath. Not enough cutting pressure will leave a few strands, which catch and pull up the cloth. The 2 hour after wetting out time when you make the cut means the any cloth that gets lifted, is still green enough so that it can be pushed back down with a gloved finger without damage. Once the length of the masking tape has been cut, you just pull the masking tape off with the strip of excess cloth attached. This process is really much easier to do than to read about and well worth the effort for the clean results.

Squeegie wetting out fiberglass cloth:

When I built my trailer sailer I religiously wetted out my cloth/mat with a brush. This was scary enough, I knew of no other technique but it worked. Reading Nicks Book, talking to a friend who had his yacht deck commercially sheathed and reading posts on the Guillemot Builders bulletin board, it appeared that wetting out with a squeegie was prevalent.

It was a technique I wanted to try and sheathing the inside hull seemed to be a no risk opportunity to give it a go. Using a squeegie wasn’t too bad after all. I believe that squeegie is the fastest way to wet out a large area and unlike brushing, you didn’t have to regularly clean your brush to stop ‘milking’.

The secret to good squeegie-ing, ironically, is to go slowly with the squeegie. Moving the squeegie too fast produces enough bubbles to make the epoxy go milky. If this happens, particularly when doing a saturation coat. Don’t Panic. Just go over your wetted out area again with the squeegie, but this time go slower and discard the excess ‘milky’ epoxy.

I never figured out what a name brand squeegie is. I use a 'handy grouter' which is a bit of stiff neoprene mounted on a piece of wood (about 6" wide). However, other posters have mentioned that credit cards with a row of holes drilled on top (for grip) are just as good - and they save money in more ways than one.

Here are some notes on the “sqeegie boogie” which describe what I do for a wet out.

1. Good gloop of epoxy at center line with ‘s’ shaped trail-off heading in the direction of your work.

2. Start with a slow, steady, broad, arc-ed sweep of your squeegie, moving epoxy from the centre line forwards to the chine.

3. Use the squeegie to direct/move a working pool of epoxy in the general direction. You don’t push down too hard or you will bunch up the cloth that you are wetting out.

4. If you are still pushing a good wave of epoxy by the time you get to the chine keep pushing it till it diminishes by proceeding just above the chine towards the end that you are working towards. [You can actually push in any direction you feel like, even back up towards the keel, but generally you want any stretching out of your cloth to be towards the outer edges]. Maybe start with a small gloop and get a feel for how far it will take you. Ultimately you use just enough to get to the chine in one sweep. You don’t have to push all the goop at once either. You can leave part of the pool and use it on your next sweep.

5. Then go back behind where you have worked, lightly pushing (too hard and you will pinch up your cloth) and re-establish a working front of epoxy and aim to advance the working edge, one squeegie width forward.

6. Repeat until there is not enough epoxy to get a working wave.

7. pour another gloop of epoxy and repeat

What you are trying to achieve is to first push a moving wall of epoxy over your cloth. [By starting from centre and working to the sides and forwards to the end, you are stretching your cloth in an appropriate direction as well as wetting out. I go from centre to bow, center to stern on one side then repeat for the other side]. Then by going back over where you have been with the squeegie, you are ensuring that the epoxy is uniformly distributed over the cloth and that the residual epoxy left behind is smooth and even. A good wet out is very clear and leaves a uniform ‘dry looking’ wetted out weave. Which you fill with subsequent weave-filling coats of epoxy over subsequent days.

[It takes about 48 hours for epoxy to fully cure. If the weave filling coats are applied within that time the coats will effectively be one uniform layer of epoxy. Also a by-product of epoxy curing is an amine blush residue that forms on the surface layer. If the 48 hour curing time between coats is exceeded it is important to remove the amine blush by washing the hull with soapy water and sanding the epoxy to help key-in the next layer. I wondered whether or not the amine blush was stuff of legends and folklore, but when I did launch my unfinished kayak I noted that water brought on board was stained a peaty-tea colour: evidence of the amine blush being washed off?

Indeed it seems to be recommended that it is a good idea after constructing your kayak and before you start sanding and finishing, to go for a paddle. The sun and water help wash the amine blush off in preparation for finishing. Also the launching ritual enables you to check out your new toy and satisfy yourself that it floats and goes good. This ‘cleansing’ of the conscience is usually enough to set some nagging fears to rest and revive enough enthusiasm to make a good job of finishing].

Imagine squeegie-ing epoxy is a bit like dealing with a major flood in your bathroom and you have a mop. You push the mop and get a wall of water moving ahead of the mop. You aim to move that wall of water with a smooth steady sweep towards a convenient drain. By maintaining contact and pressure you can guide most of the water to the target. Then you go over the area again and move some more water and are eventually left with a thin uniform wet surface. The only difference with epoxy is that it is getting absorbed all the time by the glass cloth and the wave of ‘water’/epoxy disappears pretty quickly

DOWNSIDE of squeegee - ing is the propensity for great gloops of epoxy to splot onto the floor. These are badges of honour on my garage floor but might end in bad vibes if you are building in the living room. Lots of newspaper about the place helps.

Day 30 18/08/2001 – 3 hours

I scraped the rough edges of the tape and the cloth on the cockpit floor. I put particular effort in the cockpit area and where my legs would go. Then I rolled a ‘weave filling coat’ of epoxy on the inside hull and deck. 1 hour. Later in the day I came back and put the two halves (deck and hull) together and wired them in position. Then I tipped the hull on its side in the cradles and used a syringe to put epoxy on the outside sheer seams (both sides). Then I went over both seams with thickened epoxy (40% microballoons/60% wood dust). 2 hours

Day 31 19/08/2001 – 1/2 hours

I pulled the wires from the seams and spent a little time fairing some of the lumpier bits of thickened epoxy. I also trimmed the overhang that resulted from my set up of the stern. It looks good from above, but I think I should have tried a little harder to get the cute uplifting curve. I am sure it will be fine.

Inside seam taping

Day 32 21/08/2001 – 2 1/2 hours

I measured and marked 1 arm reach either side of the cockpit adjacent to the inside of the seam with some masking tape. Then I cut tape for the length from cockpit to bow; cockpit to stern and 1 length for the cockpit section. I rolled up the tape for the bow and stern.

I applied a fillet of epoxy (runny, microballoons only) from the bow to 1 arm reach infront of the cockpit. I used a stick with 3 steel eyes to support a piece of dowel, pokey stick. The syringe was loaded with thickened (but runny) epoxy and taped on the end. You push the dowel to depress the syringe plunger consistently while you draw the syringe toward yourself. It seems awkward because you are stuck inside the dark hull. But a strategically placed torch and it happens ok. I then ran a fillet of epoxy on the inside sheer, from the stern to 1 arm reach behind the cockpit.

Then I soaked the rolls of glass tape in epoxy while I cleaned up the syringe. 5 minutes later I rolled the bow tape out. I was going too fast and the tape rolled off the sheer seam. I could not force it back in place as it had stuck. Pulled it all back and re-wound the tape. Rolled it again and ¾ through, the roll did a barrel roll. Very near the end it jammed. I had rolled the tape too tightly and was going too fast. As the mess is well up the bow, most of the mess will be covered by the end fill. I will also sheathe the outside of the hull, so I considered my little disaster to be not structurally critical. Also, the fillet provides extra insurance. Besides I am a rough type.

I paused for a breath and then did the stern. It rolled out sweetly. The length is straighter and shorter. This time I went slowly and carefully, pushing the tape gently about ½ an inch forward each time.

I mixed up some wood dust filleting epoxy and filleted the centre section around the cockpit that is easy to reach and can be seen. Then I wetted out the piece of tape for this section with a brush. One inside sheer taping done. Definitely scary stuff. Definitely need the respirator and a torch strategically placed at times. But easy enough to do really: slowly and carefully does the trick.

4 hours later I turned the hull onto its other edge and repeated the steps. Going slowly with loosely rolled tape and it was great. I think I should have waited a day before doing this side, because I was worried that the upside down epoxied tape might fall off – it didn’t.

Fairing the exterior in preparation for sheathing

Day 33 22/08/2001 – 1 hours

Inspected the seams – they are fine. Spent time smoothing off the worst of my rough exterior seam fillets with my rasp. This will take some time and quite a bit of sanding to smooth everything, fill the gaps, then sand, before I can sheathe the hull. I am off on a field trip next week and was hoping to have sheathed the hull and given it 3 weave fill coats. This will not happen, so I am working towards being ready to start when I get back.

Day 34 23/08/2001 – 1 hours

Sanding and scraping the hull.

Day 35 24/08/2001 – 2 hours

Sanded and scraped the deck seams and re-filleted any gaps.

Day 36 26/08/2001 – 1 hours

Sanded and re - Filleted the hull seams to fill any little gaps

Day 37 31/08/2001 – 1/2 hour

Sanding and rasping the hull joins. Pretty tired after a recent field trip. Looks like I may have to do another round of filling and fairing before I can start sheathing the hull.

Day 38 1/09/2001 – 1 1/2 hours

Sanding and scritching hull and deck joins. Looks like I will need another epoxy fairing session.

Day 39 3/09/2001 – 1 hour

Sanding and putting a ¼” round on all the seams. Just a little fairing here and there and I will be able to start sheathing the hull in a few days time. The lines from the cockpit to the bow look perfect, but there is a bit of a dip/wobble just behind the cockpit (this was a consequence of my treatment of overhanging the stern deck over the side sheer plank. If I had butted them edge to edge this would have been a nice smooth curve, but the blemish is insignificant). Having the cockpit in place, the deck rigging and the deck hatch should distract the eye from any irregularities. Will take note and think how I might do it differently next time.

Day 40 4/09/2001 – 1 hour

Sanding and did a 1 pump of dookie schmooze spot filling of all seams except the deck (hull upside down). Light, but cool southerlies meant that it took while for the epoxy to go sanding hard. So I left things for a couple of days. Also, construction work was compromised because I was sick with the flu.

Day 41 8/09/2001 – 1 ½ hour

Sanded all seams and the hull is looking good. My persistent use of wood flavoured dookie schmooze seems to have paid off. The few glitches of oversanding and fairing are minimal enough to probably be able to get away without having to paint the ends.

I masked the sheer seam and rolled a sealing coat of epoxy on. Results are wow. The wood is honey coloured and pretty. Even the overhanging deck edge fiasco is going to be tolerable. Looks like the 100% wood finish is going to be the choice.

Sheathing the outside hull and decks

Day 42 9/09/2001 – 1 ½ hour

Sheathed the hull. I masked the sheer line and taped the cloth on one side to stop it slipping and then trimmed the other side. The practice that I have been having with squeegie wetting out the cloth on the inside of the hull seems to have paid off. I used the Nick Schade pour the epoxy on and smear it about with a ‘squeegie’ technique. Actually mixed 4 pump batches and poured maybe 1 – 3 tablespoons of epoxy in a run. Then in a sweeping movement with my squeegie (actually a grouting device – a piece of thick rubber mounted on a wooden handle – about 6” wide) I spread the epoxy from the center to the ends. This seems to have resulted in a perfect glass clear and even wet out.

I came back after 2 hours and used a razor to cut the glass adjacent to the masking tape and then peeled the excess cloth off. One guillemot s&g hull sheathed.

Day 43 10/09/2001 – ½ hour

Weave filling coat of epoxy on the sheathed hull. Used the squeegie to spread the epoxy on the hull top and then rolled it with the roller to even the spread and secure some of the runs.

Day 44 11/09/2001 – 1 hour

Weave fill coat and put a strip of glass cloth tape on the keel as extra protection from rubbing/grounding. Did that at 0900 in the morning. Just enough time to dry a bit and then do one more weave filling coat this afternoon before flying off on a field trip to Stewart Island – I hope.

Tried to put the extra weave filling coat on in the afternoon, but the epoxy was too wet and it wasn’t happening too soon.

Day 45 18/09/2001 – ½ hour

Turned the boat over and sanded and scritched the sheer where I will put the paua shell strip. However, I am still suffering from the flu and only managed to scritch off the runs on the port side.

Day 46 19/09/2001 – ½ hour

Carried on sanding and scritching the port side. Need a new scraper blade!! Will start on the Starboard side next. There are a few little pits on the aft cockpit, central deck seam but I have decided not to fill them as I believe epoxy from my sealing coat will cover the holes.

Day 47 20/09/2001 – ½ hour

Bought a new blade for my scraper, but found that it is two sided, so reversed the blade I already had. Wow, what a difference. Was able to finish off the port side and complete the starboard side in no time flat. The importance of having sharp tools!!

Cut out the cockpit. I cut it out to the dimensions of the Apteryx and tried it for size. Bit tight really, so I cut it to the outside measurement (+3/4”). What a huge difference in terms of comfort for getting in and out, that made. I will get a custom made sprayskirt made for the guillemot from Seaquell wetsuits in Auckland.

Will probably glue on the paua shell strips after work and fill some of those pesky little cavities in the joins with a bit of 5 min araldite. Saturation coat could be scheduled for tomorrow?

Day 48 21/09/2001 – ½ hour

Glued on the paua shell strips and filled a few errant cavities and stitch holes in the seams with 5 minute clear araldite.

Day 49 22/09/2001 – ½ hour

Did a quick sand and scrape. Rolled on a sealing coat of epoxy in preparation for sheathing the deck tomorrow.

Day 50 23/09/2001 – 2 hour

Masked 1” below the sheer onto the hull so the cloth overlaps the hull sheathing. The extra cloth will function like sheer tape. Set up the cloth. Wet out was pretty good, again with the squeegie. There are a few bubbles adjacent the edge of some of the paua strip which will have to be excised and filled later.

Prior to wettng out, I spent about ½ hour figuring out where to put my rice paper guillemots. Side by side on the Bow looked good from either side, but from above made a weird rorchaque pattern. So I settled for one just infront of the deck bungies on port and the second one about a foot ahead on the starboard. They Look COOL. I should have organised a skull and cross bones for the hatch on the deck after all??? After the obligatory 2 hours wait since wetting out, I cut and pulled the masking tape and excess cloth off.

Rice Paper Guillemots

I had a couple of nervous tries to get a piece of artificial rice paper through a printer/photocopier (even taped to a backing piece of paper). In the end I just traced the outline onto rice paper and brushed indian ink on directly. The edges were a little fuzzy, but that gave my images a satisfying (I keep telling myself) soft edge. I then cut the image out with a 1/4' margin, figured out where they would look best and layed the rice paper under the cloth and wetted out. The central part of the wing was initially solid white artificial ricepaper tissue. After wetting out it went completely invisible.

Prior to committing to using the ricepaper guillemots, I used a scrap of ply and a scrap of fibreglass cloth to make a test piece. I used biro, pencil, ink pen, a printed image on paper and some brushed writing on artificial rice paper on the ply. Then I wetted the test piece out. The test indicated that of all these techniques the artificial rice paper was the best. I believe other builders have successfully used pressed leaves under their cloth as well …

Day 51 24/09/2001 – 1hour

Scraped the edges of the deck mat. Found a couple of air bubbles around the paua shell strip, so I carved them out and diced up some glass cloth to make a filler for the 3 – 5 little holes. Rolled out a weave filling coat. Half way through I changed rollers as the epoxy was going milky.

Then I soaked my scissor shredded glass strands in the left over epoxy and used my rubber gloved, finger to fill the holes left over from the air bubbles – worked well. Think I will definitely add shredded glass into my end fills (along with micro balloons and saw dust).

Day 52 25/09/2001 – 1/2 hour

Scraped back the excess of my air bubble filling. Looks like the shredded fibreglass has worked well. Applied a weave filling coat with my squeegie. Then rolled everything. I rolled the squeegied epoxy with a dry roller and it bubbled everything up. I think in retrospect that I should have wetted the roller first.

Day 53 26/09/2001 – 1 hour

For some reason (probably the dry roller on the squeegied epoxy and not going over it all with a foam brush didn’t help) the weave filling coat that I did last night had bubbles all over it. So I scraped them back. The epoxy was still really soft, so after all the scraping I decided not to go ahead and put another weave filling coat until tomorrow. I thought about Nick Schade’s and Daren Neufeld’s recessed cockpit advice and scouted out my supply of scrap ply. I could do it, but I would prefer the simplest cockpit for ease and building speed.

I marked out and cut out the ¾” (I got a damaged sheet of ¾” ply for $50 that was recycled from a trailer bed: I am using this to make my cockpit hoops and subsequently transoms for a number of experimental British seagull outboard racing motor boats … but that is another story) hoops for the cockpit which I will use whether I recess or not. I was cutting with my jig saw in too much haste and followed the wrong line at the tip of one of my hoops and will thus have to fill a small section at the front of my coaming when the time comes. Recoverable!!

Day 54 27/09/2001 – 1 hour

Marked out and cut 2 more hoops of ¾” ply for the cockpit of my next guillemot. Rolled on the 3^rd and final weave filling coat on the deck.

Day 55 28/09/2001 – 1 hour

Marked out and cut 2 sets of 1/8” ply hoops for the top of the cockpit. Trimmed the ¾” hoops to fit the cockpit. Still deliberating over whether or not to make a recessed cockpit. Seems like a bit of extra work and extra time, although I do have enough left over ply to do it. Maybe I will do it for the next one???

Day 56 29/09/2001 – ½ hour

Marked the starboard side ¾” x ¾” hoop and cut at the deck join for and aft. I was careful to aim my tenon saw at the bow of the boat and cut down to almost the deck. Then I removed the hoop to my work table for the final cut. Then I clamped the hoop in place and marked and cut the other side. Sanded the surface of the hoop to be glued and mixed up some epoxy with West System 406 microfibers to make a glue and smeared it around the deck where the cockpit is to be glued. Smeared glue on the underside of one hoop and the ends and then clamped it in place with about 3 clamps. The hoop was very slidey with the glue and required several clamps near the back to hold it in place. I then smeared glue on the other hoop and clamped it in place. Finished by placing more clamps (total 18) around the hoops.

filled the small cutting mistake on the port front join with wood dust coloured epoxy glue.

Wiped excess glue off the outside.

Day 57 30/09/2001 – ½ hour

Filed the deck hoops flush and sanded the surface to be glued. Marked the 1/8” x 1 ½ “ cockpit ring and cut them at the deck ridge joins. Clamped one ring temporarily in place and marked the other side. Then sanded the faces to be glued, mixed up glue and smeared glue on both sides. Used the 18 clamps to clamp the rings in place.

wiped excess glue off the outside.

Stopped writing my diary. But did put 3” ply cheek plates from underneath the coaming to the chines either side of the cockpit (to support the cockpit and to install my back rest to. Nick has hanging cheek plates, but I wanted mine to be as strong as possible), made a back rest, put in a bulkhead at the aft of the cockpit, made an aft deck hatch, put on deck rigging, did end fills and drilled holes for endloops, dug a seat out of a cheap boogie board with my filleting knife, made a Greenland paddle out of a bit of western red cedar 4 x 2, bought a custom made sprayskirt from Seaquell wetsuits in Auckland, did some sea tests, vigorously sanded with a random orbital sander and varnished … but all this was a mere formality and doesn’t really count. On reflection after all the miles of paddling fun it is “a short time building, long time paddling”.

As one old crusty (remote) West Coast New Zealand critter once said: “the guy who made time, sure made a lot of it” – The statement doesn’t actually make sense as we all know “time is short, play HARD” …. but at the end of the day after paddling around in your home made kayak and having adventures, you can sit down and over a quiet cold beer, think to yourself that it really boils down to being just a matter of perspective.

Cheers and happy paddling

Pete

INFO:

Re: s&g guillemot

Posted By: Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks <schade@guillemot-kayaks.com>

Date: Monday, 10 September 2001, at 11:22 a.m.

In Response To: s&g guillemot (j.knierim)

As drawn, the center of buoyancy is about 106 inches (270 cm) behind the very bow of the boat. I usually put the back of the cockpit about 14 to 16 inches behind the center of buoyancy.

: Hi there,

: finally I got the plans for the guillemot s&g kayak, but no indication of

: where to put the cockpit. Does anybody know where the centre of gravit is

: exactly so I can work from there. Thanks a lot

: Joaquin