Hi,
Yes it is sunny and warm here in Ventura, CA. About 80 today but supposed to cool off later in the week and rain a little. I am on the coast about 60 mile north of LA. Great place to live.

Vaclav says 3mm is OK for the deck. I am using 4mm okoume for the whole kayak because I was able to get it. I think other types on plywood would work for the deck as well. In fact, the Cirrus in the instruction book uses sapele for part of the deck. I am keeping it simple on this first kayak.

I built Vaclav's scarfing jig but I didn't like the results. I wound up using my trusty 60 year old block plane and the joints came out very nice. I found a kind of zen-like satisfaction in planing the wood.

Since this is my first kayak, I had to buy everything except the woodworking tools to build this boat. I estimate that my total cost for materials will be about $500. The least expensive kits are about $650 so there is a savings if you compare apples to apples. You can save considerable money by using cheaper plywood like luaun. I opted for okoume marine which I finally found in LA for $25.50 per sheet. I haven't included my costs for going to get materials.

Finding the materials and talking to suppliers has been one of the real fun things about this project. Highly recommended.

Bob

: Hello Mike,

: I built my Cirrus out of 1/4" laun (5mm), 1/8" on the deck would
: have been much better, it might be a little harder to keep fair while
: trying to get it wired and tabbed with epoxy. Vaclav uses the internal
: stations in some key areas and this would also help if you use 1/8".

: Be sure and take a look at Jim Kozel's website showing the stripping of the
: deck on a cirrus!

: Vaclav has instructions for a simple scarfing fixture using a skil saw.
: Worked fine for my Cirrus.