: Does anyone have direct experience with fabrication of carbon fiber kayaks.
: Being recently diviorced, I am seeking something to fill my time and I've
: always wanted to build a short sea kayak out of carbon fibers. I have
: aboslutely no experience in boat building, but am a scientist who has
: worked with various forms of carbon fiber for the last 10 years. My
: applications with carbon fibers have all been in esoteric fields like
: chemical sensors and have nothing to do with kayak manufacture.

: Any information would be of great help and I'm ready to start the project
: yesterday. I live in Oregon, have lots of flat water nearly out my back
: door, and the freezing fricking pacific ocean with nice waves is only a
: few hours away.

: Please respond directly to reytech@coinet.com if possible as it will be
: easier for me to retrieve messages.

: Thanks a bunch, any help will be greatly appreciated.

: Tom Reynolds

Tom,

I'd like to add one perspective to what the others have suggested. Build a straight-forward no-frills strip boat and paddle it. If you like the design, cover it with shrink wrap and mold a hull and deck off of it.

Regarding your original focus on materials - any available carbon rienforcement will be compatible with epoxy. For the carbon work, select a high-strength epoxy system (Raka high-strength, West ProSet, Fibreglast 2000) intended for that type of work. The clear coating epoxies that are commonly used for strip boats will work, but they have slightly lower properties, and you'll give away some of the carbon's performance. One of the possible issues with a light, all carbon boat is that the laminate can be thin enough make buckling instability a problem, so stiffeners may be a good idea.

Stay active here, and keep us posted on your progress.

Sam