: ... are you starting a marina or something Scott? Where are you putting these
: boats? Stacking them in the living room? That looks awesome. I've always
: wanted to try one of those baidarkas. That bow piece looks mighty beefy or
: is that part of the mold I'm looking at. What materials are you using?

Hi Chip,
No marinas, yet, but I have been thinking seriously about a small boat building community, here in Bellingham. But until I get a large shop, it's just a dream. Yes these boats get stacked in the livingroom, the bedrooms, and even in the kitchen. Need more space! And more time to finish some of these projects before starting more. The problem is I get excited to try something, usually spur of the moment, then it's like someone says "1-2-3 GO!!!" and something happens to me that's hard to explain (kinda like the Hulk story, but not as violent). It's just full tilt, anything goes, grab the tool that works for the current purpose and go. Whatever wood is on hand gets chopped, cut, ground, sanded and the best part, epoxied and/or glassed. Too fun to stop.

These Baidarka projects were started with little preps or planning. This was the third time these forms have been on a strongback, this time it was the last. The forms are 3/8" Baltic Birch and the stringers 1/2"X3/4" or so clear Fir. They were attached to the forms with thickened epoxy and a 1" brad nail to hold it temporarily, then a 1" brass screw was later added for strength. I really should have used lighter material than the fir, but didn't have anything else 20 feet long. The stem pieces were made from whatever I could scrounge up. The bow is a piece of laminated pine about 1" thick and the stern is cedar. The bow stem is bulky, but I hope to carve some more away and maybe even a few cut-outs to reduce weight. This one's gonna be heavy. But it is being treated similar to the Cuervo Fat Boy, as a test. Just to see what happens if...? Again too fun to stop. This is simply an enjoyable way to build a kayak fast.

The one thing that I think helps speed things up is that prior to cutting the forms I offset the waterline toward the deck enough to clear the top of the deck for all forms (10 to 12 inches). Then while cutting, leave a temp tab cut precisely to the offset on all forms. When inverted and placed at the designed station, they just fall into position vertically. An hour or so of cutting out a dozen forms and only 20 minutes to attach to the table and it looks like a kayak. This method is very forgiving when it comes to fair lines. After the stringers get attached and you cut the temp tabs off with a pull saw, and the whole boat becomes more loose as you cut it free from each form, it's like it's hatched from the table and a kayak is born. So far, this is my favorite quick build method. And I see lots more of these in my future.

Kitchen is occupied with the Cuervo Fat Boy, just finished the rear deck and started a new Greenland paddle also.
Smf