: First let me thank you for the long and layman's term essay. I am COMPLETELY
: new to this and want to learn the right way. I am a senior in High School
: and just wanted a fun project.

Well, using chicken wire is a mrginal way. I won't say it is a "WRONG" way (heck, if it floats it's a boat) but there are other ways which are far superior.

If you thought my last response was a long essay, belive me, it would take a book to describe all you would need to know to build your own kayak. Fortunately, though, several other people have already written such books -- and I learned most of what I know about boat building by reading them.

Your best friends for getting such information is your local librarian and amazon.com.

Search Amazon for books on canoe and kayak building. Even though you want a kayak, check out the stuff on canoes, too. Two reasons for this: Generally, these boats are closely related and use similar construction techniques. Specifically, the British use the word "canoe" to describe kayaks, and the term "Canadian Canoe" to describe what we just call canoes. Lots of good "canoe" (kayak) books written in Great Britain. Copy the title, author publisher and ISBN number from the Amazon site and take it to the local library.

Ask about getting these books through interlibrary loan. When you come in with all the information, your librarian can easily find what libraries (across the US and around the world) have the books. They'll arrange for a copy to be shipped to you. Usually no charge unless you forget to return the books on time. Be careful here. They were nice enough to get the book to you, so be good about getting it back to them.

If you find a book that has plans in it which you would like to build from, I'd suggest you buy a copy so you'll have it around for reference while you build. Most of these books are under $20, and that is a good investment.

To start with let me suggest Gil Gilpatrick' book on strip built canoes. Gilpatrick teaches boatbuilding using these techniques at a community college. If his students can build with these techniques, so can you. David Hazen and Nick Schade both have books of using strip building techniques to construct kayaks (Hazen also covers canoes).

Gilpatrick shows how to take measurements off of an existing canoe so you can duplicate the hull shape. His method is far superior to wrapping the thing in chicken wire. The same technique can be applied to copying a kayak hull -- but I don't recommend building things this way. The people who designed the boats are entitled to earn some money for their work. Copying their designs this way is the same as ripping them off.

Building a kayak with a plywood core is another method. Chris Kulczycki has a couple of books out on this. The current "hot" method of plywood construction is to cut long, narrow pieces from plywood, and lace them together with short pieces of wire stuck in small holes drilled near the edges of the plywood panels. Once all the pieces are wired together the seams are sealed with epoxy resin and narrow strips of fiberglass cloth or tape. The wires can then be removed.

With both strip building and plywood construction the outside of the boat is covered with a layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. The white cloth turns transparent when it absorbs the epoxy resin, so you see the beautiful wood grain. All wood strip boats get the inside lined with the same type of reinforcement -- glass cloth and resin -- and many plywood boats do.

The layered construction gives you a strong wood core surrounded by fiberglass. The combination is a composite structure that is relatively cheap and very durable. At the same time, it is cheaper than solid fiberglass of the same thickness, and far lighter in weight. It is more flexible than solid fiberglass, so it would tend to bend when it hits a rock, rather than crack.

I mentioned building a skin on frame kayak in the last posting.

If youa re going to deal with straight 'fiberglass', which is also know as "glass reinforced plastic", or "glass reinforced resin" then you are going to need some sort of a mold. Making a mold for this type of boat is very similar to making a strip-built kayak or canoe. The difference is that you treat the materials with sealers and waxes so the plastic resin does not stick to the mold. That way your boat can be removed from the mold.

www.fibreglast.com (spelled funny but that is the way it works) has a lot of information online that you cna read. They can get you videos and books on constructing molds, and similarly they have info on spraying in a plastic resin mixed with chopped up oieces of glass fiber. Probably most of what they are showing is going to be too expensive for your single project, but you can get a handle on the process from looking through their literature.

Some kayak and canoe clubs have molds already made which they share among the club memebers. you cna take one of these to a commercial fiberglass fabricating company and have them spray on a layer of fiberglass, or you can do a layup of glass cloth and mat by hand inside these molds.

There are a lot of suppliers of fiberglassing materials. Besides the previously mentioned Fibreglast, you can get these materials at almost any auto repair shop or boat shop. Unfortunately these may be places where you'll pay list price for the materials. Buying a yard or 2 of glass cloth from them won't break you, but a lot of kayaks use 6,12, or 18 plus yards of glass cloth just to cover the wood. For a solid fiberglass boat (no wood core) you might need to double that amount.

Here is how I figure that: A short commercially made fiberglass kayak might weigh about 44 pounds. I'll use that number. For best strength you want about half the weight to be glass and half to be plastic resin, so you'll have 22 pounds of glass cloth in that boat. Glass cloth comes in differnt thicknesses, which are conveniently graded by how much a square yard weighs. We typically use 4 and 6 ounce cloth. let's assume you use a thicker 8 ounce cloth, (each square yard weighs 8 ounces of half a pound) then for 22 pounds of glass, you'll need 44 square yards of fabric. While the material is sold wider than 36 inches, you'll have a good deal of waste whenyou try ot cut curved boat parts from a rectangular piece of cloth, so figure you might need 35 to 40 linear yards of glass cloth or a combination of glass cloth and mat. If you go with thinner glass cloth you'll put on more layers. If you go with thicker glass cloth or mat you'll need a shorter length, but each yard is more expensive.

: Where can I get this glass cloth? This bulletin board has an area with links to suppliers. Make that a starting point. If companies aren't listed there they can get mad at Nick, and not at me for not mentioning them Spend time over the winter reading through the archives of this board for lots of raves, and some rants, about suppliers. ALL the books that you'll find on building small boats have lists of suppliers in the back.

If you are writing for catalogs, get one from Defender. Their website www.defenderus.com has the catalog online in a .pdf (adobe acrobat) format, but hte printed version is easier to browse through. They have LOTS of neat stuff as well as fiberglass and other reinforcing fabrics, and they have good descriptions of what the products do, and how you can use them.

: What method would you recommend if I can
: borrow one to "wrap around" and form from? This will be a short
: kayak for rivers in Colorado Area. 1 man.

I'd recommend you make a form from wood or plastic foam building insulation sheets (it isn't Styrofoam (r) unless it is blue and says it is, but everyone calls it that anyhow). You can shape this easily with sandpaper to achieve the dimensions you need. it will geive you a much sturider form than chicken wire, and when you cover it with glass cloth it will be waterproof and have a smooth, rugged exterior. Hollow out the spot where you'll sit and leave the rest of the foam alone. It will be good flotation and add structural strength. This idea has already been mentioned, by the way. I have spme out-of copyright plans for a small (11 1/2 foot long) kayak made from plywood which I'll e-mail to you tomorrow. You'll get two emails, each with an attachment in .tif form which you can open up in a word processor program by using their routine for importing graphics. This will let you enlarge each to fill a single sheet of paper. You can make this kayak from thin building foam instead of plywood if you are going to cover it with enough fiberglass to give it strength. the nice thing about working with the foam is that you can cut it with a knife or a hot wire, and glue it, or hold it together with hatpins or toothpicks, until you cover it with your fiberglass.

: I am really set on creating the
: exterior out of fiberglass. But I am also looking for the easiest and
: cheapest way.

: My dad told me about the concrete canoe event. He is a Civil Engineer and did
: it in college.

: How did you get into boat building?

By reading the books by Gilpatrick and Hazen.

: What have you done?

Not a heck of a lot, I spend too much time in front of the computer talking to other builders and people who ant to be builders, such as yourself.

:Thank you again for all the info.

You are certainly welcome. Write back as you go. Lots of other people on this board started in exactly the same manner as you, and they have returned time and again, posting pictures of some of the most fabulous boats you can imagine.

And that is jsut the amateurs. There are a few pros who inspire us, too.

best of luck in your project.

PGJ