Why not Cove and Bead?

For years, the state of the art in making strip-built boats has been cove-and-bead strips. Since most boats have rounded sectional shapes, i.e. the forms have a curved shape from the sheer line to the keel line, it is inevitable that each adjacent strip is oriented at a slightly different angle relative to its neighbor. If the edge of each strip is left square, this results in slight gaps in the seam between adjacent strips.

Kayaking Class Gear List:

Paddlng safely in ocean water requires you pay attention to water temperature and conditions. You generally want to dress for the water temperature, not the air temperature. You should also plan on carrying other gear that will help protect you or provide a layer of safety while paddling. The gear list provided here is tailored towards summer paddling in Maine. Local conditions where you paddle may dictate variations in this list.

Watch the progression from a bundle of wood strips to a completed kayak in 7 minutes. In this week long class students made a beautiful fine strip planked kayak.

Here is the schedule for the week shown in this video:

A&E - In Focus Profiles - Kayak Builder from Mustache on Vimeo.

Last fall a 10 person camera crew spent all day here at my shop filming a segment for the A&E Network. I had wondered for a while what happened with all that effort. Recently someone on FaceBook messaged me saying he had seen something about me. Well, the above 30 second sequence is the result of 10 to 12 peoples working all day, plus how ever long it took them to prepare before and then edit afterwards.

Gerry and I headed up to Maine last weekend to scout out the locations for the Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat.

It was Gerry's first time in the area. He and his wife are now looking into buying a place up there. There are loads of great paddling venues suitable to all skill levels of kayakers.

UPDATE:

 Resolved: I've upgraded the Kayak Forum to a new system.

I am currently experiencing technical issues with the KayakForum.com Bulletin Board system.

This 11 minute video gives a quick overview of the whole process of building skin on frame micrBootlegger Sport sea kayak. As of the time of this video capture I had not fully tested the kayak yet. My goal after more testing is to release plans and kits.

Updated Catalog