Trip built Kayak 02-17-13

I have been able to work on the Yak the past several days. I was able to go out today for a little while. I m still in the process of stripping the deck. I still have a few more weeks to go. I have also been working on attaching strips without staples, not sure yet if that is going to work or be too slow. So we shall see.

I hope you all ave been able to go outside and enjoy some of the weather we have had recently and or tomorrow.

Stripping the Deck of a Great Auk Kayak.

I have been working in the kayak the past few days. I pulled off a day for the garden and then the next day I totally re organized the shop, moved some stuff around and sold some stuff I didn't need anymore.

But back to the deck I am trying not to staple it since it will be more visible than the hull.

I also don't have near as many clamps so this process is quite a bit slower. I initially stapled by strip that joins the hull and deck to make sure everything stays lined up. But the last two days ibhave been using clamps and tape to hold them while the glue dries.

I have a design started in the deck as well.

I hope you all are having an amazing week. We may have some rain and it winter mix moving in this next week.

I hope you can get out and w joy some of the outdoors this week.

02-04-13

It was way to nice to stay in the shop today. After putting one strip on the deck, we took Pete out to look for some wood for a paddle and I want to try some hickory for the stem.

Hope y'all were able to get out and enjoy some of this beautiful weather we have had the last couple of days.

02-02-13 Great Auk Build

I got the final strips put on the hull yesterday, so I flipped it over and looked at it from my reclining roller chair for a while.

I started putting on a strip on the deck last night, between getting tired and It looking like it was never going to work, I called it a day. I figure lack of sleep and a less than easy starter stop was going to be less than fun.

After a good nights rest and some time to ponder the starter strip for the deck, I went out this morning and got a start on it. The good news it was only 31 degrees out this morning, almost 10 degrees warmer than yesterday morning.

I got the first strip put on the deck both the starboard and port sides placed and looking very good.
I then started laying out my design strips. I have a thought in my head than I not end to unlock and put it in the deck of the Great Auk.

Building the High Capacity Great Auk, has given me a little more design room for the deck. I have drawn out several designs for the deck. I have even colored some in on paper. But oddly enough over the past month, I have come up with another design, and that's the one I am going with.

I can only hope what I have in my head looks nice when I get the kayak deck built. I also have one color scheme for an accent that I want to try. Knowing I don't want to mess up the kayak, I have been working on the paddle again in my pare time and with the glue dry time. I will do the color on the paddle, and if its a flop, it won't be like a kayak. I already have plans of building a Inuit style paddle anyhow, o if I blotch the paddle I have already started, ill have a good spare for the yak :)

I hope you all have an awesome day, I hope some of you were able to get out and enjoy some of this nice weather too. It did warm up to almost 60 today and with hardly any wind it was a beautiful day.

Have an awesome Saturday evening.

Dale

Hehehe I almost forgot, last night I brought in the chisel and the plainer. I thought I would bring them in so they weren't frozen in the morning when I went out. After I got settled in, I decided to go ahead and sharpen them,.

I knew if felt like I had a pretty good edge on them both. Well, the bottom picture shows my little finger after I tried using my chisel as a plainer on the sheer strip fitting it to the start strip of the deck, yep, it's sharp, I barely bumped my finger with it and it sliced it right on up..

Hehehe, be careful with sharp tools, and even more careful with dull tools.

That's your kayak strip building tip of the day.
Dale

02-01-13 High Capacity Great Auk, Finishing The Hull

It has only been 3 weeks since the plans arrived. The total length of this Kayak is 18'

This morning I will be finishing up stripping the hull. Yesterday I got down to the last three strips on each side of the keel.

I knew that the last strip will be on custom strip from front to back and will take a but of time to carve out so I saves it for today when I will have the full day to work on it,

I did pull staples out of the stern yesterday and I sanded and planned on it for a little bit. I will more than likely do the same to the bow this morning after I finish stripping the hull.

I have also been reading more on paddle making. I will try to go out to the woods later this weekend and get some wood to make an Inuit style D shaped bladed paddle.

If you are curious how much wood has been used to strip the hull, I have used 7 2X6x10'. I would venture to guess if a guy was able to find 5 with out any knots, that would more than likely be enough. I have cut the knots out of the strips I used for the most part. I know there are a few with some small knots I left just for a little character.

I hope you have an amazing day.
Happy Friday to you all.
Be safe, and get out and enjoy the outdoors
Dale
Team Frazier.



Those last two pics are of the last stick right before I glue them in.

Finished the hull, flipped the yack over started taping the sheer strip so I don't accidentally glue the deck to the hull.

Going to clean up and call it a day, my first two strips or two on the deck have a lot of curve etc, I will work on them in the morning,

Again, another great day.
Dale.

01-28-13 Outdoors in Oklahoma

Well they have been saying for almost a week that it may get up to the 70's today. Knowing that I had planned to pull off the High Capacity Great Auk build and go enjoy some time in the woods looking for some trees for my next Yak Build.

We decided to take Pete out and ride her for a while. We did come across a couple of trees I think will work perfect on the next yak.

I hope you were able to get out and enjoy the outdoors sometime today, we don't get too many days in January in the 70's.

I have attached some photos of Pete as well as some of the trees I will harvest for the next yak on my list.

As always,
Get out and enjoy some of the beauty life has to offer.
Team Frazier

01-26-13 HC Great Auk Build

The hull is getting closer and closer to be completed. It's to a point I can only do about two strips preside each day since the area is getting smaller and tighter.

I am thinking I have just about 4-5 more days working a couple of strips per day to get the hull done.

Here are some pics from today.

01-24-13 Strip Built Fishing Kayak

I have been steadily working on The High Capacity Great Auk in my free time.

I am down to roughly 9 strips on both sides of the hull.

I roughly sanded the keel strip where it meets the stems at the hull as well.

I hope you all are having an awesome day.
Team Frazier

North East Oklahoma Kayak Anglers Fishing Tournaments

For those of you who may be interested in Kayak Fishing Tournaments, NEOKA posted the 2013 fishing trail on Dave's business page on Facebook. It is an event sponsored by OKC Kayak.

Be sure to tell Dave Dale sent ya if you stop in to look at his new kayaks also. That's where we have got out last four kayaks from. He has a great business and customer service is amazing as well.

Back to the kayak fishing tournaments.

Here is the link that Brent posted on Facebook.

http://freepdfhosting.com/43195a6c2c.pdf


I'm ready for spring time fishing.

Have an awesome day..

One of the many reasons I am building a kayak

01/21/13 High capacity Great Auk, Keel Strips.

It is going to be chillie out this morning. Morning temps are 25. :)

I am going to go out and start the heater and get the barn warming up. I will drink another cup of coffee and go and and lay on more strip down, and then start working on the keel strips.

Ill post more after I get the keel strips laid.

I have not been to a boat building school, I am reading four different books and the best I can tell there is no magic number to putting on the keel strips. When it gets to a point that they lay right, on the Hull strips, that is when the keel strips need to go down.

I have re read the chapters on hull and keel strips, as well as I have also looked at several blog post, and it appears to be like anything else with strip building a kayak, there is a hundred different ways to do the keel strip, but basically when the side start rolling up and in, when it fits, put it on.

The one major difference is, the last little bit of the keel strip will have a much great bevel to the keel strip as you try to fold the two strips together and down a hair. I will also say I have seen one last night on a boat builders blog and it appears that guy used a single piece on his keel, but the bottom of my yack has a bevel to it from stern to bow. So I will be using the two strips laying in the previous post.


I took my time on the keel, I wanted to triple be sure it went on straight, I also second guessed myself 8-9 times trying to figure out the best way to get it all contacted up front even knowing it will eventually be covered by the outer hardwood stem.

Working on the football tomorrow.

01-20-13 High Capacity Great Auk Build starting the Keel Strip

After church today we had to run some errands. I knew we was not going to get much done when it was almost 2:30 when we got back home. I also knew I was close to needing to put the keel on. So I got up early before church and glue enough sticks together so I would have some long enough to reach from one end to the other.

I needed some more tape, glue and staples. I am using 9/16th inch staples, they seam to be about the right length. While we are talking about staples and glue, go ahead and save yourself some money and buy a gallon of glue. It is much cheaper than the littler bottles and you will end up going through quite a bit of glue. It didn't take long to go through three normal size bottle of glue. The good news it, I have three I can refill now. I leave one at each end of the kayak and one over to the side.

Also, it has been getting below freezing temps at night almost the entire month, so I bring my glue inside each night. If I glue late in the day I will leave a couple of heat lamps on, in under the kayak to keep temps decent mouth the glue cures instead of freezing, so far it hasn't been a problem, but Febuary in Oklahoma normally brings on some fierce temps.

I have some images attached to this post, the keel strips are cut a hair long for length and after I got them up there on the boat, I worked on the rolling bevel and for it very close to the right fit. I am still one stick low for the keel to line up properly, so I left the keel stick laying on top and called it a day. I was a little unsure how the keel strip was going to attach so I also needed a break to re-group, study it some more, and do some pondering to come up with a solution that would not only work, but I want it to look good as well.

After stopping to re group and think about it, I am positive it will go smoothly when I get started back on it Monday morning.