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MAE593-76 Baidarka build
Pirate Petes' strip plank build of a 200 year old Aleutian Island kayak who's lines were taken from a museum specimen
WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
Well after about 2 years of very slow and casual hobby building I did the seam taping of the hull and deck this weekend (12 July 2008). Last night was my first chance to take my kayak outside and sit inside my strip plank MAE593-76 replica while it was on the ground.
Bare in mind the Pirate is a thug measuring in at about 6 foot tall, 220 lbs, size 12-13 (US) feet , but he could only barely fit through the coaming (reverse bending of knees wasn't actually necessary, but a push of faith was required). First impression was that I should have made the coaming longer. But once I was in, there wasn't much room anyhow.
Compounding it all, was that the v-hull meant that the kayak kept capsizing off the piece of foam that it was resting on in a most disturbing fashion. Things aren't boding well for launch day.
I do think that I might get used to the tight fit eventually ... and I was wearing jeans for the 'fitting'. Maybe I will have better luck naked and feral greased after I practice a few re-entry and rolls [or die]: definately ..... frightening imagery .... but illustrates what I was thinking at the time.
I can only press on with the final throes of the build and put the thing in the water. BUT MY ADVICE IS THAT YOU WANT TO BE A BIT SMALLER THAN THE PIRATE IF YOU ARE CONTEMPLATING A SIMILAR BUILD.
THIS BOAT WAS BUILT FOR AND BY INUIT. MODERN MAN IS NOT INUIT.
If nothing else, the strip built MAE593-76 personifies the difference between strip built and SOF. With SOF if you don't fit/don't like it, it is a relatively easy fix with a double check at the saran wrap test. With the stripper if you don't like it ... you could fix it, but it won't be easy.
On the plus side I don't think I will be needing to make cheek plates or a seat.
But talk to me once I have seatrialled my boat .... maybe it is all a matter of a storm in a tea cup and I might actually get used to it.
Ahhhhh! It is official. 20 Dec 2009 ... I had a fair go at modifying the coaming, extending it 6" forward and trying out a moulded fibreglass seat. It was a brave attempt to get comfortable in my MAE593-76. The modifications enabled me to complete my first race, but the last 100m to the finish line weren't any fun ... I was getting pretty woozy towards the end, most probably from blood constricted in my legs because of the very tight fit.
If you attempt to build this kayak, look at raising the deck to a peak at the front end of the coaming after figuring out how much room you think you will need.
I am presently committed to extending the front of my cockpit forward (because that is the ralatively easier fix for my completed project) but after todays performance I am going to have to go forward again (probably another 3") so I have something resembling a K1 open cockpit. Something that I can clear my knees.
That will marginally compromise the legendary sea keeping capabilities of the MAE593-76 ... but at least I should be comfortable sitting in the jolly thing!!
25 March 2012, Some thing of a miracle breakthrough. The latest round of coaming extensions (now it is as long as a K1 racing kayak) have worked. Numerous trials sitting in the kayak on the lawn weren't convincing, but a short-course 6km race last Sunday, tested well. By good fortune, the Tuitsoq spray deck for my skin on frame, Brian Shulz F1 - just fits the modified coaming. So I was good to go and Finally I can sit comfortably enough in my Baidarka. The next formality is to fit a rudder and I think I will have a good toy.
Backing off after finishing the 6km short course race along the motorway from Petone.
Photo by Shazza Winiata, thanks
Photos to come:
The genesis of my build came the day that my good friend generously gave me a couple of planks (6x2" and about 10 feet long) of New Zealand grown western red cedar. Initially I had selected the wood for making a couple of west greenland kayak paddles.
The planks were stored in a stack in the middle of a cow paddock and were sheltered by a couple of pieces of corrugated iron. Probably a fairly rustic origin for what was to become a pretty nice looking kayak. But the price was right. On the drive home I thought, screw making a few paddles, I bet I have the makings of a strip plank baidarka in my hot little hands.
Since the wood had cost me nothing and I did need a replacement racing kayak, I had the foundations for 'having a go' at building Nick Schades free baidarka plans from the lines that he took from a 200 year old Aleutian Island kayak collected by a museum known as MAE593-76.
Making a cedar strip plank version wasn't exactly traditional. But I figured that it would be a good way for an amateur like me to faithfully recreate the general shape. Building a long Baidarka like the MAE593-76 traditionally would involve alot of skill and the chances of twisting the light framing into something of a banana somewhere in between the construction and subsequent skinning would be relatively high for somebody like me.
I was sure that building a cedar strip version over a form would help me build a faithfully shaped replica.
Another attraction for me to build the MAE583-76 with cedar strips was for maximising the internal space. I am sure I would need all the help I could get to give me a chance of actually fitting into the hull. The hull-deck clearane of the strip built MAE593-76 will be the lowest of any of my kayaks. The traditional skin on frame build has a relatively deep on edge keelson with the framing leaving very little room for me to sit. Also, having no ribs would make it just that little easier for me to slide my legs in. Even during the late stages of the build, I had no idea whether I would actually fit into the finished hull. The acid test will come only after I have taped the deck and hull together and 'have a fitting'.
Watch this space .......
Taking Shape
Profile of a rocket?
Frames on a Form
These are half the frames for the baidarka pretty much straight from Nick Schades site. I downloaded the file into Coral Draw 8 and found out that it was 1:1. By tracing the half lines and then mirroring each of them, I could end up with a full sized form. Most could fit directly onto a sheet of A3 paper, but some of the larger mid sections had to be canted. In the end, I managed to print all my forms full size onto Sheets of A3 paper [yup the MAE593-76 is a narrow critter]. Nick doesn't give a frame #1 and assumes that you carve the nose out of a piece of solid wood.
I went ahead and stripped the nose of my baidarka without bothering to loft or make frame #1, just winging it. However, the nose of my MAE593-76 is just a little pinched as a consequence and in hindsight it would have been better to have gone to the tiny little effort of making the missing form.
Frames slung on a slightly modified building form that I had left over from when I built my Nick Schade Guillemot Expedition Single
The build formally started when I lay the sheer strips.
Evolution of a Bifid Bow
This is what was to become the upper jaw of my bi-fid bow. Frame #2 is at the right. Using skin on frame baidarka construction guidelines there is an upper 'flat' ontop of an upright to make a "T" shape.
The lower jaw of my bifid was built as it hung. The shape derived from the curve set up from frames #4 through to #2. This is another place where having a form #1 would have helped. While I am happy with the results of my stripped bifid bow, I may yet fair more curve into the last foot or so of the lower jaw. It would be a shame to have my MAE593-76 constantly pig rooting rather than riding 'just clear' as the original would have.
Here I am capping the underside of the upper jaw. Note the liberal use of my masking tape clamp system.
The bifid bow is really coming together now. I laid down another layer of strips to the lower jaw at this point and am ready to cap that.
Here the bifid is pretty much finished. I just have to cap the front ends. The transition from the elegant and fine bifid bow to the shoulder of the hull is a little harsh. Maybe yet another consequence of not making and using that form #1. However, I have seen this abrupt transition in photos of skin on frame baidarka, so maybe it is just an outcome of bringing the two contrasting shapes (bifid at one end and hull at the other) together.
Capping the bow
After the hull and deck were taped together I capped the bow with some left over dark chocolate western red cedar scraps that I had lying around. Ideally I would have used the same cedar strips that I used for the hull and the caps would have been much less conspicuous. But sadly, I had used up all my cedar strips and probably wouldn't have got a great match buying some new ones. Using the chocolate coloured cedar will give a dramatic colour contrast which may or may not look good.
I console myself that racing power boats have bright orange tips to their bows and this will be reminiscent of that. Since my MAE593-76 is a prospective racing boat ... it is kind of appropriate.
Now all I have to do is seal the bow with epoxy, varnish and launch.
More on the Frame 1/Frame 2 dilemma
Later in the build when I had sheathed the outside of the hull and released the shell from the building frame I discovered that I had all but built frame 2 in. I had a 'bit of a battle' to remove my frame 2. If I did have a frame 1 it would have been well and truely built in. So I guess if you do go for a frame 1 option, make sure it is made of permanent materials.
After a bit of blood and sweat and fierce use of a chisel, I managed to release my Frame 2 from the well hourglassed lower jaw of the bifid, but it was a near thing. I guess I will be looking at something of a cunning 2 part end pour for the bow later on.
Stern ending
This is the foundation of my baidarka 'transom' stern. I laminated some western red cedar together to make a board(because that would keep weight down) and cut a traditional type hole. This has no function other than a tribute to skin on frame baidarka. But keeping your ends light is a mantra that any salty dog worth his salt keeps in mind at all times. The hole would have to help keeping the ends light. Too bad the mystical hole will never see the light of day once the stern is stripped. But at least I will know that it is there.
The baidarka transom stern starting to come together. I stripped and pinched the keelson strips for about 3 layers either side of the keel. Some creative fairing and capping should sort out the peeled banana skin effect. The struts at the deck (bottom of the picture) are just temporary to hold my holey stern core in line with the keel (and to remind me of what my stern might look like).
Stripping the sides. The cunning plan was to strip the keelson as far as I dared and then just strip to the last form which I have almost completed in the photo above. When the time came to strip the 'wine glassed baidarka stern' I would just start stripping the 'transom stern' from the top down. When it was all getting too compound, 'pear shaped' and 'hard-to-do' somewhere near the keel strips: I would stop and fill the hole with a piece of wood and fair/sculpt that last tricky little bit.
In the end things went pretty well. With a bit of tongue in cheek; serious use of the heat gun; poking and prodding and creative stripping I managed to strip the entire 'transom stern'. The little cross piece (pictured above) was glued this side of the ceremonial hole as something to staple my strips to, to give me the nice wine glass shape reminiscent of the original skin on frame construction. I was happy with my resulting stern. Sure it will require a bit of wood sawdust epoxy 'dookie schmooze' filleting here and there, but I think I will get away with it once the hull is glassed and varnished. If it is too unsightly a bit of creative red paint wouldn't be a bad option for the stern.
The stripped transom stern looks a bit like a triceratops here. The frill was created by stripping the transom stern strips by compressing them on the bevelled hull strip ends. The plan was to fair them out once I finished. The triceratops horn at the end of the keel has been left as a tribute to the skin on frame baidarka. Most seem to have a little knob at the keelson which seems to be the tied up skin to form a 'bung' presumably to let the kayak drain when not in use. I figured that a truncated vertical stern would leave a 'rooster tail' like you wouldn't believe and left my tribute bung with the view to fairing it into a nice round shape and hopefully take away that little bit of potential drag (the rooster tail). Well that is the theory anyway.
Here is my transom stern mostly faired. I like to think it is rather elegant and certainly not the truncated end to the kayak that I thought it might have been. The shape is pleasingly hourglassed and would serve as a reasonable bow. I don't expect too much drag resulting from this shape.
A shot of the stern, 'wet out' just before I sheathed the inside. I have left the holey stern tribute piece in place and drilled a couple of holes to assist with the end-pour. For when I get a round toit
Cockpit
I like this shot. That little tribute bung makes the stern of my MAE593-76 look more like a ram from a trireme than the elegant stern of a baidarka.
The cunning plan with the cockpit was to strip it vertically to make a replica skinned 'turret'. I haven't seen anybody strip such a thing so it would be novel. Also I wanted my strip replica MAE593-76 to look the part. I figred if nothing else stripping the coaming in such a way would give me a drier ride.
In the photo above I have stripped the coaming risers deliberately too high to enable the coaming ring to be more or less level. At this stage my Baidarka is looking more like a strip planked Confederate War, pedal powered submarine than a baidarka. But honest, if you could see the other end it would all be crystal clear.
Nick Schade suggests that the cockpit should be an oval. Initially I had marked out an oval shape, but fitting into my MAE593-76 is still an unkown factor. With a flat cockpit and a narrow hull, getting in could be a mission. To give myself a fighting chance I 'squared off' the aft end of my coaming to give me a more modern day conventional shape (and to make a bit more room for my fat ass to fit in - of course)
Just another view of my coaming riser strips. The curious use of paulownia (light coloured wood) is serendipitous. I built the hull and most of the coaming with as much of the New Zealand grown western red cedar as I could. When I ran out I used Paulownia since that is as light if not lighter in weight than my NZ western red cedar and since I was building a prospective racer, I wanted to keep my weight down. I was happy with the contrast of the two woods and even if my MAE593-76 isn't going to be the fastest multisport racer, it could quite possibly be the prettiest.
Deck fittings
I deliberated for sometime as to whether or not to put any deck fittings on my Baidarka. None of the multisport boats have them and decklines were going to be extra effort and extra weight. On the positive side, having some decklines would be useful for carrying a spare paddle (breaking a paddle in the middle of a long race would really ruin your day and I have seen one snapped paddle during my racing career - fortunately it was somebody else's). Also if the unspeakable eventuates - my Baidarka is not the best multisport racer ever, then having decklines will come in handy for clipping my deck compass and sundry things like fishing lines etc onto and make the kayak more utilitarian.
I wanted flush deck fittings and the Maroske style fittings that Steve Dorrington had fitted to a Nick Schade Petrel that he had made were neat and tidy. Talking to Steve, the cunning plan was to drill and epoxy fill some oversized holes in the deck. Then re-drill the set epoxy so some clear plastic tubing, re-inforced with some rope to prevent the walls collapsing at the bend is a snug fit. Four squares of wetted glass cloth are placed as a bed at the base of the fitting (inside the inverted "U"); the plastic tubing is then pulled down onto the expoxy cloth 'bed'. 2 larger squares of biased cut, epoxied cloth with a slot cut in the middle is forced over the top of the "U". Finished off with two squares of biased cut, epoxied cloth with little nicks at the ends over the top to seal off and enclose the loop. After a few weave filling coats and some more cloth dabbed into the middle of the "U" and the epoxy is well set, the rope and then the plastic hose is removed to leave an epoxy u-bend.
There was lots of dabbing and sweat, but I think the flush deck fittings will work out really well and the cost was insignificant since I was using scrap glass cloth off-cuts. Definately no chance of knocking my knuckles.
In keeping with traditional? baidarka rigging, I have one deckline across the hull near the coaming and two in front of the coaming.
A close up of one my epoxied Maroske deck line fittings. The rope and plastic tube will be removed once the epoxy is well set. This is the underside of my deck and a piece of black reinforcing carbon fibre cloth from around the front of the coaming is visible to the left.
At last a bit of progress. With the last of the New Zealand summer, I sheathed the outside hull and managed to free the building forms from the hull. Then I gave the inside a quick clean up and sheathed the inside. This is a picture of the inside hull from the stern looking forward to the bow just before sheathing.
Building carnage! But that is how I work in the confined space. There is a glimpse of the building frame on the floor to the left and the completed deck lying ready on the floor to the right.
The hull gunwale bulged out at this point, so I put the building frame back in place and strategically strapped the hull up to the frames. The flare reduced considerably after I sheathed the inside, but I still strapped the hull and deck to the replaced building frame 'til I was ready to tape the hull and deck together permanently.
It was a relief to get to the stage in the build where I could remove the building frame. It marked a bit of a milestone in the build. But as I discussed above, it still had a some duty to do before taping the hull and deck together permanently.
I finally got around to taping the hull and deck together. It took two rolls of packing tape and looks O.K. There is a bit of crazyness at the bow end partly due to over zealous trimming - that will be a job for some stealth dookie schmooze. Now I just have to steel myself for the inside taping.
This is the inside hull and deck. The inside taping will be a serious mission because that bow is about a mile long. My u-beaut Maroske style fittings will be difficult to tape around. The maroske fittings look too close for comfort to my taping seam.
Even the inside taping for the run to the stern looks intimidating. This is one long kayak.
The inside taping, despite the enormity of it all, went well (by my own standards). The long run to the bow wasn't too bad and not having yet capped the ends enabled me to poke my hand in and fine tune any 'issues'. I think the key to inside taping is to really take your time and take it easy. Rushing tends to end in tears.
The light at the end of the project is now in sight, but there is still quite a few things to do yet. Firstly is once, the inside tape has cured is to see if I can actually fit in the kayak. Then I have to cap the ends, do the end pours, make a couple of toggle holes (bow and stern) fill the outside hull/deck join seam, tape that, sand and varnish, sea-trial and fit foot pegs, seat, back band, rudder and cheek plates as necessary.
Ends capped and faired and just waiting for a sealing coat of epoxy or two. Seriously close to launching. We have been having bad rainy weather lately, but the sun came out for a few minutes and I brought my MAE593-76 out for a bit of air. Siting in the hull with just shorts on isn't quite so bad ... just a tad claustrophobic. But as long as my legs don't go to sleep, it might not be so bad. At the very least, sitting in my MAE593-76 will be good for stretching out my hamstrings.
My MAE593-76 sitting next to my current apteryx racing boat. Considering there is 200 years of design difference between the two, we really haven't come a long way. It will be great to put the new boat to the test.
Wetting the Hull
In between lashings of cold August rain, we got a cracker day. I couldn't help myself and threw the very unfinished hull into the water. I don't know what I was ranting on about with all the fear and angst. It wasn't that bad: Boat floats. Boat is much more stable than my old Apteryx multisport racer. Boat has a good turn of speed, especially when I picked up the wake of a passing boat wake.
Basically: Happyness filled.
The pirate weighs heaps ... infact he is clinically obese (well according to those skinny twats that made up the Body Mass Index ... but then, they all need a good bit of sand kicked into their faces for being prats) so not surprisingly, my MAE593-76 is a bit down on its water line. But not by much and apparently the lower jaw lifts out of the water once I am under way. SO ... it is all good.
Just a bit of an idea of how the stern is looking.
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