: Hi Builders,
: I have finished my Nikumi frame,a Tom Yost design, and I wonder about
: stitching up the bifid bow of a baidarka. What I have done on my other SOF
: kayaks is stich a pocket on both ends slightly shorter than the length.
: Then strech it into place and then stitch up to the cockpit area.
: On a bifid bow I wonder should I stich around the bifid cut out then up and
: over first. Or should I stich the center seam after the pockets are
: seated. Then stich the bifid cut out pulling it tight and then cut out the
: extra.
: If this is way to complicated I apologize. I don't know of much written on
: this part of the build. Anyone having experience with this please post a
: comment.
: Ya know I could just quit thinkin and start stitchin.
: Clayton Plunkett.

Hi Clayton,
I stitched the lower jaw first, as tight as I could get it, then the underside of the upper jaw as far as the top of the upper jaw. Then I pulled the skin tight toward the stern and sewed a short section a bit short of the end of the tail-piece and hauled back on the skin to slip the 'hook' over the tail-piece. I let the canvas relax for a while and un-hooked it off the stern and sewed a second 'hook' about an inch farther in and stretched that over the tail-peice.

At that point, I sewed up the tail-piece to the top and did the tension lacing for the deck. I sewed from the ends to the cockpit, it seems easier to minimise any wrinkles that way.

Hope this helps,
Mike Savage
South West Cork

PS, the Nikumi bow bifid should be easier to do than my baidarka, a Hearst/Lowie. You don't have to cut the skin between the jaws with the straight open bifid. But it looks better.