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.