So I meant to keep some sort of a build log on this forum, but I guess writing is not that high on the priority list. Despite my silence I did not sit still however.

I had quite an elaborate email exchange with Bjorn. In deciding de dimensions of the kayak he asked me to build a sort of cockpit jig to decide on a deck height I can tolerate. (see pic) I also used this to try large and small cockpit sizes. With the help of this it was decided to only alter the deck height by one cm, increase the width of the kayak by 2 cm, and mainly improve the volume by lengthening the kayak. This resulted in a kayak design of 579x56x28 cm, with a displacement of about 163 kg. That way there should be capacity for me, about 20kg kayak and and about 20 kg luggage. I happen to own an A2 printer so an email later the plans were mine.

Meanwhile I asked a club member at the kayaking club where he buys his wood. He caught me by surprise by telling me that he had an abandoned canoe project, and that I could have his rough cut strips of yellow cedar. It was about 270m, and should be just about enough for my frej, or maybe not? I wasn’t sure so I bought a board of spruce (I am on a bit of a budget after all) and made another 6 strips out of that. The instructions on Bjorn site make that sound easy. To me it wasn’t. I screwed up a few before I managed to cut strips of approximately 5mm thick with my circular saw. My error was that I used a guide rail which stuck out before the saw quite a bit, leading somehow to way to thin strips. After sleeping on it for a night I shortened the guide rail and all was well.

Next step was to mill the rough cut yellow cedar to width. For lack of a router table or saw table I made a jig for the circular saw. (pic) I messed up another couple of strips with this by not pressing the strips to the guide rail well enough, but in general I was quite satisfied with the results.

The rough cut strips also had all kinds of different thicknesses. Most of it was about 6,5mm and I decided that was to much. Luckily the club member that donated me the cedar also happened to own a thickness planer. I borrowed it for a morning and made very short work of getting all of the strips the same thickness (pics again). What a joy to be able to use proper equipment! I also put the spruce through to get everything the same thickness, and I measured the strips to be somewhere between 4,8 and 5,2 mm thickness. What a huge amount of sawdust this created! I think I made the kayak weigh at least a kg less (if not more). I had been doubting whether to go through the trouble of doing this thickness planing, but I am very glad I did.

I don’t have that much woodworking equipment, and am trying to keep working on a budget, but I did place the larges orders this week (I hope). I ordered fiberglass and epoxy, hatches and a skeg from kajaksport, and I treated myself by ordering a bosch orbital sander and a small cheap pull saw. That should cover most of my bases for the kayak build. I’m pretty sure I will need some more things (like some bendable hardwoord for the outer stems) but I am hoping that this covers most of the big expenses.

I just thought of the fact that I did not order paint yet. That is because I am still in doubt on how to finish the boat. I am doubting between hull/deck white/grey, clear/grey and grey/clear. I think the clear/grey will be the most pretty but I also want a practical kayak, on which a non-clear hull would be better. I have more or less decided to just build the kayak and choose a finish on the end, when I can see the kayak in real life, that should help me decide.

So that is about where I am now. About 3 mornings of work went into the kayak thus far, so about 12 hours. (if you don’t count the multiple runs to shops and all the hours of planning and reading up on other builders reports that I did). I already bought some 6m rough cut pine, and glued the station drawings to MDF (pic). Next step is to use the long pine to build the strongback, and saw out the plans. I would prefer to use a crosline laser level for attaching the moulds, but I don’t own one and find them a bit expensive for this one time use. Any tips for a cheaper equally precise way to line up the moulds?