recoverysofbuild

One attractive aspect (for me) of building a recovery kayak is that it is a small kayak and subsequently I won't be needing a lot of wood and materials. A bit of rummaging around my messy garage produced enough spare wood to make a fair start.

First thing to do was to cut out the gunwhales and measure up the key locations of the: Masik (knee brace and the frame that the coaming rests on) position, back rest, foot rest positions and overall length and width. Actually this was novel for me because with this build I was no longer following a plan, but instead I was responsible for fundamental things like the length and width and shape of the kayak. I was hesitant at first about doing this, but warmed to the task and moulded the kayak into what I thought would certainly be a unique and hopefully good boat.

I cheated a wee bit by measuring up a few polo boats. Ultimately the length was settled at just short of 3 m [this is the max. regulation length for a polo boat: and later I whittled my ends back a bit to allow for a fitted rubber bumper]. The width was about 22". This seems a little narrow, but is comparable to the polo boats that I practice rolling in, so despite my reservations, my recovery should be about just right. [post script - at 22" wide my recovery is fast for its size, easy to punch out through surf and easy to roll. However, at 22" wide it is a too unstable for novice comfort and if I were to make another recovery kayak, I would make it wider - say 24" or even 26" to give a flatter 'edgier' hull that might surf across the face of waves even better]

My friend, Steve Dorrington came around with his 'story stick' with all the strategic positions from his very nice skin on frame kayak. Initially I had marked out my cockpit position and size to exactly that of a commercial polo kayak. But after consulting the 'story stick' we tweaked the position of the Masik, back rest and foot pegs pulling them aft by about 2". There will be plenty of room and opportunity to adjust my seating position in the finished boat and of course there will be the 'saran wrap sea test' - where I will wrap the frame in packing plastic so I can trial the boat in a pool to re-assure myself that everything (cockpit position, Masik ...etc) is right.

After cutting the gunwhales we did the rib mortises. I used a router. After my first attempt, I had to beef up the guides to keep things under control and we got better and better from there on

I made some temporary guides to hold the frame in place and that gave me my first look at what my kayak might look like.

These temporary frames hold the gunwhales apart and at the right angle (which results with a little 'rocker' being naturally built into the frame]. Then you can fit your endpieces and deck beams to secure the shape:

Close inspection of the beautifull QAJAQ frame made by Mark Hensel in USA and thinking about where I was going to put my aft deck stringers highlighted an oopsie. I had placed my deck beams at the top of the gunwhale and these needed to be about half way down.

It wasn't a problem to re-do my deck beams in the proper position, so lesson learned and a lesson that mistakes can easily be rectified. At the end of the day, I don't think it would have much mattered even if I had left my deck beams 'up high'.

With my 'ladder frame' more or less looking right, it was time to lash the deck beams and aft deck stringers in place. Being lazy and in a hurry I didn't mortise the deck beams, but just dowelled them. I felt a bit bad about taking 'the short cut' but after the joins had been 'dowled and lashed' they were surprisingly strong.

The only 'artificial sinew' that I could find for my lashings was dyed a deep purple. This stuff is waxed and a bit fiddly to 'serve' through the little holes I had drilled. But seems strong. Being purple, it really shows out and I fear that it might even show through the covering that I eventually use. Not a biggie. I doubled up on the cross beam lashings. Maybe it will make the frame stronger ... or maybe it won't

Marks deck beam lashing My lashings of lashings

Now ... all I need to do is add water and find some surf .... well in my mind at least.

I spent some time trying to work out my keel shape, particularly the depth. Too shallow and I wouldn't have enough freeboard. Too deep and my kayak would paddle like a barge. I tweaked things up and down and ended up with this 'bit of a fish shape' with the bow steeper than the sloping stern

Something that I had prepared earlier: I had cut up an old oak bedhead into lots of little strips 6 mm by 3/4" to be soaked and eventually steamed into ribs.

There were alot of distractions, but after two months soaking in seawater, my ribs were saturated and didn't smell or look too bad at all. So it was time to fire up the steam box. I used a version of the Nystrom jig copied from a photo that Mark Hensel sent me. The jig was great and bending each rib over the form with the backing strap really made a big difference between ending up with a rib or a piece of kindling.

First time steam bending ribs was a learning experience, but I was happy enough with my results. All of a sudden my two dimensional 'ladder' took on a three dimensional shape.

Son, Sam pegged the ribs in place - I like the crissy-crossy patterns on this photo.

Once the ribs were pegged, it was time to lash the keel in place and start fitting the stringers. Sam is recessing the stringers into the 'bow plate'

This is a shot of the stern with the keel and side stringers mostly in place. At this stage our rickety looking string and wood frame really took on a 'whale tail smashing-proof' strength of its own that should easily withstand the riggers of pool polo and wave surfing when we eventually hit the water.

The ribs pulled nicely into place when I lashed the stringers. This is a cross section of the hull shape. Bow (on the left) full to hopefully prevent nose diving on late wave take-offs. Full in the centre (to float my enormous bulk) with a tapering flat stern section to surf on and a thin profile to enable the stern to slice through the water when you sink the tail and turn 180 degrees - well that was the theory.

This photo distorts the stern to look a little wider than it really is compared to the bow, but the thought was to have a wide stern for surfing and to carry a bit of buoyancy through the slim stern to give me a chance to get into the cockpit by sitting on the aft deck without sinking the stern before I can get in.

I brought the stringers through to the outside of the bow to try and avoid the 'aircraft carrier overhang' look. Also the flat bow hopefully will be slippery and not bow steer when the bow gets burried in that late wave 'take off'

I took both stringers to the edge of the stern to give me a flat 'beaver tail' stern to assist surfing?

What next, well I have to make the masik, fit the foredeck stringers, make the coaming and skin it my frame .....

My masik is a little unconventional but should do the trick. It evolved from a desire to keep weight down and to re-use some western red cedar that I had laminated into a bowed cross-beam for one of my British seagull outboard racers. I used some scrap ply legs to raise my new Masik to a comfortable height.

In using the scrap ply my materials list now reads: Pinus radiata gunwales; douglas fir drift wood nose plate; western red cedar aft deck beams and stern plate; rimu and recycled kahikatea cross beams; old oak bedhead steamed ribs; mahogany keel and keel stringers and now a western red cedar and the last of the Fijian kauri ply masik - how's that for materials list with some character?

In the picture below, I have fitted the foredeck stringers and chocked them at the foot rests. There is alot of space between the stringers and I am tempted to put a third stringer down the middle or better still some mini intermediate masik beams like Wolfgang Brinck did. But poking and proding seems to indicate that they seem to be strong enough as they are. The boat looks like an efficient machine with this low foredeck arrangement. [Post script - the fore deck was vulnerable to side impact and on of the stringers broke when a polo boat rammed into the side. Also the relatively unsupported deck stringers would be vulnerable if you were to haul an upside down capsized flooded kayak over the front deck to teeter-totter drain it. So my recommendation is to put in some intermediate deck beams supporting the stringers, like Wolfgang Brinck did]

One of the problems with using drift wood is that the douglas fir that I had beachcombed from a remote Makara beach and used on for the bow plate, opened up a split. But I glued it and temporarily clamped it with the piece of silver duck tape that you can see on the bow. Once I remove the duck tape ... 'you will never know' :)

Rob Morris says to silicon the stringer lashings to protect them from sand abrasion. Having a surf beach just down the road means that my recovery is going to see some surf, sun and sand action. It will be needing all the protection it can get. Sam has done a good job using some clear marine silicon sealant that I had lying around in my shed.

It is a bit frustrating being so close to a launch, but I have to make a coaming and it is taking me precious time. I have seen Brian Shultz bend up a coaming ring in about '5 minutes' but my mahogany coaming 'stock' is not very compliant. I will have to steam bend and laminate two thin battons together to have a chance to get the shape I want. Here I have steam bent an inner ring out of four pieces [scarfed together] over a temporary mould form. Then a couple of days later I steam bent a second outer ring butt joined at each end of the coaming.

Then I laminated the two rings together. I used plenty of masking tape on the outer faces, so hopefully my laminated mahogany coaming ring will look good when it is oiled and finsihed ... at least there shouldn't be too many gluey finger prints all over it.

A sneak peak of the coaming temporarily placed on the masik. The kayak is starting to look real good. Lets hope that it performs as good as it looks.

Finished the frame

Yeah Har!!!

Bring on the............

SARAN WRAP SEA TRIAL

I think the smile says it all

The saran wrap test was conducted on 21 January 2007 and we must say, we thought the new boat goes pretty well.

The saran wrap test is a pre-skinning sea trial where the frame is wrapped in a temporary skin of 'glad wrap' - plastic food wrap. It gives you an opportunity to try out your kayak and put to bed some of those nagging questions, like: will it float? Is the balance, footpegs and backrest in the right place, does it paddle ok ....?

Maybe I could have wrapped a bit more plastic and wrapped it a bit better because we had a leak from the stern at least. I had wrapped the hull in a helical fashion, but rather loosely and with about a 3" overlap. Tony Calvert wrapped his baidarka tightly with only a 1 inch overlap and subsequently his temporary skin was much more water tight than my effort. However, my temporary wrapping worked well enough to have a good paddle around and give the boat a good test. I am happy to report that my little recovery performed as good if not better than I had imagined.

Here is a shot of the coaming. The photo will be a handy reference so I can remember where to put the coaming come time to sew on the skin. The colourful use of duct tape was a result of using two rolls of duct tape to secure the skin rather than the one that I expected. Steve Dorrington took the photo, but I will of course take full responisbility and any artistic credit.

The saran wrap test became a veritable launching-fest because Tony Calvert was trying out his baidarka for the first time too. You couldn't get a bigger contrast in boats. The short little recovery is built battleship strong for pool polo and wave battles. The baidarka was built greyhound lean for speed and open ocean. The recovery looked rather like a pimple next to the long sleek baidarka.

Launch moment - always nervous time. My recovery floats, a bit like a cork actually and quite differently to Antons pictured at the top of this page.

Now lets put a little weight in the recovery. Phew, water line looks low, but good enough

A bit of a lay back test. The recovery is a bit trimmed to the stern, but that should be good for surf and dropping the tail and spinning in pool polo. We can easily trim by moving forwards in the cockpit.

And now for some serious weight - almost like I imagined back when ...

WHAT NEXT? Just a bit of fine tuning. I can trim the stern deck beams to enable the coaming to float about 1/4" lower to help our layback rolls and put in an extra foot rest forward of the existing one ..... to give us options. Then it will be time to start skinning.

Skinned and launched

Well, skinning wasn't a barrel of fun since I had never sewed a skin on a kayak before and didn't know what I was doing. But at the end of the day, there is not a lot of sewing to be done on a recovery kayak. Worries of a saggy baggy skin evaporated as I sewed from the cockpit to the ends, then tensioned up the coaming. 5 coats of polyurethane and it was a done deal.

The surf was running high while I was putting my last coats of polyurethane on and come launching day the surf had dwindled to 'mouse surf'. But initial trials were very promising and I was having a 'ball'. My recovery not only survived but performed very well in some later trials in seriously big surf (3-4 m). Here is some footage of launch day:

recovery surfing.

Skinning the Recovery with Polyester

Introduction

The cunning plan was to skin the recovery with 8.5 oz rip stop polyester cloth ... which apparently is used by horsey people in New Zealand to make summer horse covers. Once the skin was sewn on it was coated with several coats of a flexible single pot polyurethane Revathane Polyurethane (used for sealing concrete) to make the polyester water proof.

My buddies in Wellington had made several SOF kayaks using the polyester cloth and Revathane and their kayaks had withstood the test of time. Also at a Coastbusters kayak conference they had demonstrated the flexibility and strength of the treated cloth on a test panel when it survived a brutal bashing with a Crescent Wrench (or 'shifter').

Additionally the polyester was reasonably available in New Zealand and relatively cheap. Ballistic Nylon from Dysons is probably the material of choice for SOF kayaks, particularly because it gives a smooth skin like appearance and texture when it has been polyurethaned. But with a semi-prohibitive $NZ-$US exchange rate and freight charges, Polyester was an economical way for us to go.

Reading a fine e-manual on skinning Polyester Kayaks [From the Willow Kayaks website ... alas, the article appears to be no longer available] the main difference between skinning with nylon and polyester is that Polyester is more elastically stable = you can shrink nylon by wetting it. But with Polyester, you have to tension the skin by pulling - hard - all the way through the process!

So with that in mind; a quick chat with my buddies to see how they did it; a quick read of sections on skinning in Cunningham and Morris building skin on frame books: I launched into skinning the recovery. Skinning with Polyester is really a two person job, especially at the start with the pre-sewing tensioning part - one person pulling and one person securing the tension with a stapler.

The short of it:

1: tension the skin along the length

Drape the polyester over the upturned frame

[There is a choice to be made at the start: whether to go for an along the gunwhale side seam as advocated by Cunningham or a central seam. The Cunningham technique has some advantages and is probably the easier of the two because the 'lay of the cloth' and tensioning is easier and more instantly gratifying - less chance of pesky wrinkles. The down side of this technique is that the polyurethane treated seam becomes hard and might graze knuckles when you are paddling and might scratch thighs when you are trying an assisted re-entry.

So I chose the center seam route ... mostly because up till that point, none of my buddies had tried it and to avoid the percieved 'operational' problems (discussed above) with the side seam technique]

Ensure there is enough material daping down the sides to accommodate the seam technique that you will be using: Side seam or centre seam

Staple the material into the wood at one end bow/stem

Go to the other stern/bow and pull the polyester as TIGHT as you possibly can

[The Willow guy recommended stretching the polyester like a hammock between two strong posts and then sliding the completed kayak frame into the resulting 'hammock sleeve' - I didn't have two strong posts and that seemed like a bit much like effort - stapling one end and pulling the material from the other end 'till it hurts' seemed to work fine].

This photo doesn't really show it, but there is plenty of material overhanging both sides.

2: Tension the skin laterally

This was achieved by tensioning the skin to one side starting from one end (say the stern for example) and stapling the skin to the gunwhale (say 3 staples over 3 inches). Then moving to the other side and tensioning the skin as much as possible (over 6 inches this time). This is where that assistant comes in really helpfull. They can secure the tension with staples while you are holding it . I alternated from side to side (6 inches each time) towards the opposite end of the boat.

My polyester was 'rip stop' which meant it had a convenient grid pattern which I found to be a usefull guide for keeping my tension aligned with the keel. A penciled centre line might help if you don't have rip stop patterns? Note a couturier who knows what they were doing might have the cloth draped at an angle to the center line so the 'lay of the cloth' reduced wrinkles ... but you would have to know what you were doing)

Starting from one end, tension the skin to one side over the first 3" from the tip of the stem/stern

Secure with staples at about one inch intervals

Go to the otherside and tension the skin as tight as possible for 6" from the tip of the stem and secure with staples.

Go to the other side and tension the skin as tight as possible for 6" from where you finished the first time and secure with staples

Repeat until you get to the other end.

At the end of this process the underside of the hull was taught and made a most pleasing drumming sound when tapped.

Then it is time to flip the boat over.

The Willow instructions suggested putting a temporary baton down the middle of where the seam will be and stapling the cloth to it with a little tension. Then you remove the staples as you sew. So I put in two temporary batons from the Masik to the stem at the front. And from the 'back brace' to the stern at the back. Pictured below (hopefully) you can see the well tensioned hull skin - still held in place by staples, the temporary central batton with the trimmed deck skin held in place with staples until the seam was sewed:

3: Trim and set up the seam

Put in temporary central batons with a guide line down the centre - I secured my temporary 1" wide batons with staples at the ends

Trim the cloth as close to the opposite edge of the baton as you dare - I probably went to the otherside of the temporary baton + 1/4".

Roll the seam edges under themselves to make a butted seam, you will sew through the doubled cloth which should help prevent pulling the cloth with the tension you apply after sewing each "x"

Secure the deck skin, Seams butted and turned under themselves, with staples.

4: SEW for you life

Now it is time for the 'hard Yakka' - actually sewing the skin on isn't too bad at all. Progress is steady and relatively quick. Indeed the rythm of sewing is almost "semi-therapeutic". Even if you haven't done a sewing project remotely like this before, you soon get the hang of it. [Real inuit wives would do the sewing for the husbands but my New Zealand wife laughed and then told me to "piss off" when I had the audacity ;) to suggest that it was traditional for wives to sew the skin onto the kayak .... So it was all down to me]

Remove the staples from the immediate sewing zone

Thread two curved needles at each end of about 1 yard of sewing cord [all the instructions suggested not to use waxed cord, but I had a roll of waxed 'whipping cord' that I got from a boat shop and I used that despite the warnings and haven't noticed any problems from having used waxed cord so far.]

Start near the centre of the boat. Guestimate the distance to the height of the coaming, beyond the cockpit side of the Masik or back brace. The material gets rolled up Cunningham style when it is lashed to the coaming when you have finished sewing.

So there is no need to sew all the way across the cockpit opening.

Tension the skin as much as reasonably possible by rolling the under folded seam sides together. [Tension is relatively slack at the centre of the boat but gets tighter and tighter as you sew towards the Stem/stern ends - Don't fret too much about the lack of tension around the cockpit, because this all comes out when the skin is tensioned through the coaming 'ring' as it gets attached to the coaming]

Sew one needle down through one under folded 'doubled' cloth and up through the other 'doubled' cloth on the other side to make a butted seam. [pull the cord through till it is centred]

Then sew by crossing each thread as you sew on the way back to make an "X"

Tension the "X" by pulling tight and repeat ad infinitem (well almost)

Sew towards the ends with a cross stitch using alternate needles. I started each cross stitch sew a little outside where I thought would be comfortable and pulled the seam, puckering it up a little, with tension. Doing this seemed to help pull in some extra tension and helped pull out alot of wrinkles as I progressed.

Pull out the staples along the gunwhales and from the central baton as you go

Sewing halfway towards the stern. Note two curved needles; the wave dissappeared by magic as I sewed towards the end; I used the small pliers to occasionally pull a needle through the skin and pull staples; it looks like I started about 2" on the cockpit side this side of the deck beam.

Stern deck sewn, a done deal

How I sewed the ends with details of the 'cross stitches' My cross stitches were quite small, other people make them a bit bigger. But at the end of the day size probably doesn't matter.

The underside of the stern with two little 'built in skeg-lets' = coool!

[Post script - since launching and giving my recovery a fair thrashing, the only punctures to the skin have occured adjacent the keelson (outlined in the photo above). While the skin flexes and can cope with surprising scritches and knocks everywhere else, I think a bit of 'scissor action' is happening immediately adjacent the keel. After putting on the second patch after beaching hard on an exposed rock, it dawned on me that maybe I would have been better off to put a reinforcing strip over the entire length of the keelson extending 1-1.5" either side at the outset. I recommend you do this]

Recovery skinned - just a few wrinkles of honour around the coaming and mostly drum tight.

Note how the skin has been rolled up Cunningham style and lashed to the coaming ring. The rolled up skin is held temporarily in place with flat head nails placed at about 1 " intervals poked through the coaming and the material. Then the nails are removed one by one when the skin lashed permanently to the coaming. At one stage the coming was studded with nails and my recovery looked rather menacing with its 'rotweiler collar'.

5: ART WORK - A bit of indian-inked-on art work - I did this pre-polyurethaning and had no end of fuzzy ink creep. It is probably better to put your art work on post-polyurethaning.

6: Polyurethaning After 5 or was it 6 coats of polyurethane with sanding between = A done deal and ready for extensive sea trialling.

Polyurethaning is the only toxic process of SOF building =

OUTSIDE

PROTECTIVE GLOVES

OVERALLS

RESPIRATOR

EYE PROTECTION

My 8.5 oz ripstop polyester had a rather coarse sharkskin texture despite sanding between coats after I had finished polyurethaning the skin. This didn't particularly bother me and has smoothed out a bit with use. I think that after about a month, you could get a better, smoother finish if you sanded the 5 coats of polyurethane when it had hardened and then put an extra coat or two of polyurethane on afterwards.

Performance Review

Having described how I built my Recovery, it is only reasonable that I give you my biased opinion on how it goes: The boats performance is pretty satisfactory. Obviously there is enormous satisfaction in paddling something that you built yourself [Well, partly built since Son Sam did most of the building] and it is an indescribable thrill to feel the built in features working the way you thought they would. But there are some things I would maybe do differently next time.

GETTING IN THE BOAT

The old pirate has to confess that a 'get fit and loose weight programme' has backfired somewhat. So instead of weighing in at 95 kg, the muscle bound and fit pirate now weighs in at 100 kg. This is probably at the extreme end of weight carrying for such a small kayak.

Thus, getting into the Recovery is a bit problematic for me (other people of more modest weight may not experience any of my difficulties). Despite making a loose-ish fitting cockpit to assist with a fast and efficient mounting, I still have to sit on the deck temporarily to wriggle in. There just isn't enough buoyancy in the stern to support such enormous weight and my Recovery tends to sink by the stern and some water floods into the cockpit (if I attempt a fully floating entry).

However, launching in still water is usually a matter of entering in water shallow enough so that only the stern grounds briefly while I get in.

Launching on a surf beach is a matter of finely judging the surge so I can place and enter the kayak in between surges, seal the coaming with my tuilik, 'knuckle drag' to ensure the kayak doesn't move with the next incoming surge (until the Recovery floats) and then paddle out through the surf.

Sometimes a misjudgement sees me sitting in my Recovery in full tuilik and paddle ready for action but apparently miles from any water for up to 5 minutes before the next surge makes it to me (while I ponder my future and bad judgement and how silly I must look).

In the book QAYAQ, Kayaks of Alaska and Siberia by David Zimmerly on launching proceedures, page 58: "A less spectacular launch method from a mainland beach involved facing the kayak into the sea while on the beach and then waiting for a wave to come in at which time the kayaker used a single-bladed paddle on each side to simultaneously take his weight off the kayak and drive it forward into the surf." So while my surf beach launching technique is a bit harsh on the skin and fraught with the potential of puncture by stone or shard of glass ... it works pretty well AND is used by Inuit: so it is all good.

I have been able to enter the Recovery in deepwater from the duckboard of a boat, but that involves a fair bit of weight juggling and leaning for support on the duckboard .. but it is possible.

Things I would do differently next time:

• 1. Lose some weight!

  2. I adjusted the deck stringers to allow my coaming to sit lower than usual (to facilitate a good layback for rolling). However on reflection having the back of the coaming sitting even an 1" higher would make a significant difference in helping prevent water coming into the cockpit when I am entering/exiting the kayak.

  3. Re-enforce the keel with a strip of polyester to cope with any rubbing the continual beach launching.

FREEBOARD

PADDLING

Being a short kayak, the recovery is no passage maker. But my one goes fairly fast for its length, helped no doubt by being very light and the narrow beam. Breaking out through the wave break zone is pretty easy and I seem to have less trouble than the little short river squirt boats. Also the extra speed from my relatively long and narrow Recovery seems to make it easier for me to catch waves when compared to shorter river squirt boats.

Directional tracking is not good, but being an experienced paddler I have no problems going anywhere in a straight line. But novice paddlers might tend to loop all around the place. On the plus side, if it didn't frustrate a novice paddler to a premature death the short Recovery would soon instil some good paddle handling skills and habits.

The flip side of not having much tracking is that the recovery spins on a dime and is sensational for weaseling in and out of the tightest of nooks and crannies. So much so that I ended up with my first skin puncture when I attempted some extreme rock gardening and got stranded on a rock in between surges when I attempted the impossible.

Things I would do differently next time:

• 1. Nothing. The Recovery is a short boat and paddles like a short boat.

Portaging

Storing

ROLLING

My little Recovery rolls easily. Here is some footage of me demonstrating some rolls in a pool. Pool rolling the recovery My rolls while being effective have no class or style - it doesn't hurt to have somebody 'spotting you' to give you feedback on refining your techniques when you are rolling. My Recovery with its narrow beam probably facilitates its rolling performance.

I find that by wriggling forward with my feet infront of the foot pegs I can nail all my hand rolls. The wriggling forward helps me get a better layback and overcomes my inflexibility - just a sneaky little trick that makes a difference for me. But for paddle rolls, I don't have to move anywhere. In the surf, a standard storm roll helps get you back upright quickly. But the standard greenland roll and a reverse sweep roll work pretty well too.

SURFING

Happy Paddling

Pete

Pirate Petes home page