: I LOVE the look of this boat, can you tell us more ? Stripped floor
: boards ? or complete cockpit? and I see a deck ridge so its not
: all stripper .... what'd going on there ? Also what is the skin?
: it appears to be pvc.?

Hee hee. Someone who hasn't heard of "Elsie!"
http://clearstreamwood.com/WordPress/portfolio/kayaks/k2009-elsie-ct-18

I was commissioned in the winter of 2008/2009 to build a REALLY unique kayak. First thing: it was an all new design (sort of). It had to be based a historical specimen taken from Eastern Greenland in the mid-1800's. Very few kayaks were taken from East Greenland. Most are from the Western side of the island. The specimen is #LC-148 in the Danish National Museum. It's one of the many kayaks in Harvey Golden's book "Kayaks of Greenland." The design was modified extensively for my customer and became my CT-18 design. I especially love the up-swept stern like the original.

The construction method is a real hybrid: white cedar stripped hull with the exterior coated in graphite powder with a skin--on-frame deck. Oh yeah, with hatches(?!). It was to be quick to build, rugged and light in weight. We would take advantage various aspects of the different construction methods.

The strip hull is stiff and efficient in the water. Yeah, I know, plywood would have been quicker but the curves are so much more organic when stripped in cedar. The graphite coating IS the finish. It also makes it tough as nails.

Now the fun part: the skin-on-frame deck. It really gives it a real traditional look that is very light in weight. Super easy to build. No lashings, all pegged and glued. Thin, full-length gunwales were epoxied to the inside of the stripped hull. The deck beams mate to those. The frame is mostly western redcedar.

The hard hull also provided a place to install bulkheads. The deck beams were placed to so they would land on the bulkheads with the stringers flush with the tops of the beams. When the skin is glued on to the beams, you get a water-tight compartment. Plywood panels provide a base to mount the Beckson deck plates: viola! Hatches on a SOF.

The skin IS vinyl. 10 and 18oz vinyl-coated polyester that Tom Yost likes to use. Tough and easy to install. Doesn't stretch a darn so wrinkles are virtually inevitable. It was glued to the hull at the gunwales and to the bulkhead/beams with 3M 5200 sealant. A few staples held it while it cured. Quick: no coatings to apply. Very little upkeep.

The coaming is made by laminated ash strips with epoxy and then painted. It's attached to the vinyl fabric using the sandwich method: inner mounting ring of thin plywood, fabric, coaming. More 3M 5200 is used to glue the fabric to the inner ring and the coaming with a couple of stainless steel screws to hold it together.

The keel strips and the usuuappuu (rounded protective tips) are cast out of white-graphite.

Deck lines are 3/16" polyester cord with deer antler toggles. All the lines are threaded through holes in the gunwales.

My customer did his own cockpit outfitting.

Time to build: about 70 hours. A plywood stitch-n-glue hull would have knocked 20 hours off that time easily but higher materials cost.

Total weight: 28 pounds.

Any other questions?

=D