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I'm supposing you're talking about Nick's S&G plans from the internet. If I were you I wouldn't bother with the forms. They aren't true anyway. Stitch every thing together and just use sticks to open up the hull. Cut them to the lenght equal to the width the hull is suppose to have at that point. Use about 8 sticks. I used foam blocks to support both ends to help keep the right shape while I put the fillet in. If you put the sticks at the same location on both, the hull and the deck, you are sure to have 2 matching openigns when the time comes to tape them together. Be specialy carefull around the ends. Once the fillets are done in those area, they tend to keep there shape. So if they don't match you will have to use putty to smooth things out when both halfs will be taped together... By the way, while the fillet slop is still soft, I smooth the tape on it and then give it a coat of fresh epoxy. This way I save the sanding time.
I'm building my second kayak from Nick's plan... As a matter of fact, I juste finished fiberglassing the hull. I put the epoxy on with a roller. I just can't do it with a scraper. When I do the sides, I just put the roller next to the hull and pour a little bit of epoxy between it and the hull and start rolling. Hardly a drop on the floor. I was really under the impression that the presure I was putting on the roller, was enough to get just the right amount of epoxy in the glass. But tonight, in the spirit of keeping the weight down, I scraped the hull to see if I could remove excesse epoxy... Well I got 3/4 of a cup out of it... Not bad...
Buy the way... I fiberglass the whole exterior of the kayak. As for the interior, I add some around the seat area, and where I will likely put my feet when I get in. The rest receives 3 coats of epoxy. The first kayak I did as 2 layers of fiberglass on the exterior of the hull... For me, I think it's overkill. The one I'm working on has only one layer. I don't kayak in bad weather, so this will be strong enough.
The first one I built had a little bit of negative rocker just back of the cokpit area. I tried to fix it on the second one... But it's still there.
This is an archived message from The Kayak Building Bulletin Board.
Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
