Cove and Bead

Nick Schade provides a detailed walkthrough of his progress on the Petrel sea kayak, focusing on installing the cockpit recess and initiating the sanding process. His meticulous approach to fitting the recess and addressing imperfections during sanding highlights his dedication to precision. In this engaging and informative video, Nick shares insights into his woodworking techniques and striving for the highest standards in kayak construction.

In this episode of Building the Petrel Strip Built Sea Kayak, the focus is on deck stripping, with an emphasis on precision fitting and joint creation. Despite minor sound issues, Nick pushes on with details of the process of creating a tight joint for the kayak deck.

Nick Schade starts building a Petrel strip, opting for random-colored strips and experimenting with 3/16-inch Cove and Bead sets. Meticulously checking strip thickness, he shares his passion for craftsmanship and boat building through detailed explanations and careful experimentation.

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.