: You know what they say about unsolicited advice, but I'm gonna give
: my 2 cents anyway.

: A couple pieces of advice about the ends of the kayak, which don't
: get too thorough a treatment on Tom's site.

: Make your stern and stem pieces the same width material as the keel
: stringer. When I do another one, instead of using 1/2" ply
: for the end pieces, I'm going to use the same pine boards that I
: rip for the stringers. Naturally, when I mounted my end pieces,
: and glued them to the keel, I couldn't get them perfectly
: centered on the keel. (1/2" ply butted to 3/4" keel.)
: It now annoys me when the kayak is on the car, and I can see
: that lopsided joint through the skin.

: Also, if you are gluing the gunwales to the section, pinch the ends
: together before the glue (epoxy, whatever) cures, to fair the
: curve at station 1 and 8 - don't glue and then try to pinch the
: ends of the gunwales. I have unfairness at station 1 and 8, that
: I can see, and I worry about the stress riser there, but not too
: much, 'cos it's pretty strong...

: Make sure your gunwales fair out to the end of the bow piece, or
: very close to the end (I cut my gunwales as long as I thought
: they should be, then made the stem piece. The gunwales end maybe
: 9" or 10" back from the tip.) I think the best way to
: do this is to make breast hooks to cap the end of the gunwale to
: stem piece joint. If I did mine over again, I'd make a breast
: hook no less than 6" long, and have it end no more than
: 3" from the tip of the bow. With the 1/2" ply, my bow
: looks unnaturally skinny, and that it will break off given any
: opportunity at a side load (like carrying the boat and
: forgetting there is ~7' in front of you.) Mine hasn't had a
: catastrophe like that, but it looks like it wants to.

: Ack, I've been sitting in front of the computer too long during
: this snow storm, and I think my brain is turning to mush. I'm
: going to stop my advice now, before this gets incoherent, out of
: hand, or both...

: Brian

One trick, using plywood stems, which work fine, when you shape the side opposite the keel (upper side) make a flat parallel to the keel directly across the stem from the keel, then you can easily clamp the stem to the keel and keep it straight until the glue dries. If you shape the top side with a nice smooth curve there is nothing to clamp onto and makes it very difficult to keep the stem lined up on the keel.

Definition: Flat - a straight side in a curved line (the above is difficult to understand if you don't know what a flat is )

Bill H.