> First I'll start with a plain kayak, stained hopefully, if it's
> safe to do so (epoxy conflicts?).
> I'm not all that artistic, and impatient
> to get rolling on this one, so thinking about designs and finding
> contrasting wood will have to wait for the next one.

Instead of stain, why not get some of those veneer designs and apply them to the surface of your deck, and/or the sides? You can spluge on these, since you'll be saving on lumber costs. You could order them now and they would arrive before you needed to glass that part. Either leave the bottom of the hull light, or you can paint it.

> building in beautiful weather makes me antsy.

Me too, but alas, my house is to small and my garage too cold to build in during the winter. I must build outside in the summer.

> To prevent sagging between forms?

Kinda. With small patches of glass cloth and resin you don't get a lot of weight and heat over the entire structure all at the same time. Any problems would be in small, easily controlled areas. Sagging, for instance, could be detected and remedied by using a scrap of plywood held inside the boat with clamps until the resin set.

> The forms are totally completed, just begging for a skin. I'm
> not about to turn my back on two weeks of work!

Certainly you should not turn your back on this work, just put it to a different use. If you can get George Putz's book on wood and canvas boats, you can see how he builds his frames over forms which are simpler, but similer to what you have.

Basically, you use thicker, (3/8 or 1/2 inch) full length strips as stringers or chines, and wrap them over your forms. Use brads to hold them in the right places. Along the sides you connect them with shorter pieces of the same strips, so they look like the bracing on a bridge. This kinda pattern---> / \/\/\/\/

The stringers that run on the bottom are braced and supported by pieces of wood that are maybe 2 to 3 inches wide, and follow the same shape as your forms. They are screwed to the chines. Then you pull out the brads and lift the hull off of your forms.

The deck is supported by some arches cut to whatever shape you like. (Big feet? make it a higher deck). The arches support chines running from the ends of the boat to the cockpit.

Cockpit and coaming as you wish.

Cover with canvas, either by securing with tacks, or by sewing an envelope, paint the thing, and go launch it.

And your forms are still good for making a stripper.

By the way, good call on going with pine. If you are really worried about weight, make the strips a bit thinner, and avoid overdoing the resin.

In the water the weight of the boat is only one factor in performance. It doesn't make a difference if the boat is 4 pounds lighter, or you are. If you don't want to diet, at least consider taking the excess water from the bilge before you go paddling. Loading the boat is about the only time lighter is better, and there are tools and techniques to aid with a heavier boat. Two-wheel dollys are great.

One technique for easily loading a heavy kayak: People will naturally gather to view your beautiful boat. When you have a crowd, open your trunk and reveal a cooler with some cold beer and/or sodapop in it. Those onlookers will magically transform into willing helpers, who will load your boat on your roof racks for you. At that point you pass around the beverages, and say `thanks'.

Somewhere I read about people who make `plugs', or hull models for fiberglass canoes, using strips of wood. They choose pine because it is nice to work with.

Paul Jacobson