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BUILDING, RESTORATION & REPAIR with EPOXY

Number 27 Fall 2008

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EPOXYWORKS Number 27, Fall 2008 2 of 4

1 Scarfing the hullpanels

After ripping two 4'8' sheets of 4 mm ma-rine plywood into eight 11" blanks on the ta-ble saw, I scarfed the strips together to makefull length panels. I used clear packing tapeon both sides of the scarf joints to preventthe epoxy from oozing out onto the panels.

2 Gluingthe shear clamp

You cant have too many clamps for this job.

We did one side at a time.3 Stitchingthehull

We made up some forms to hold the kayakat a comfortable height. The panels stitchedtogether like a charm. We used 20-gaugecopper wire from Home Depot. You can findit in 50-meter rolls in the picture hangingdepartment. The kids cut it into 3" pieces.

We spaced our stitches every 4".

Cover story

Building a pair ofChesapeake 16 sea kayaks

By Chris Jacobson

It all began when we went camping in Algonquin Park in 2005. We rented a couple of plastic

kayaks and the kids loved it. We came home with the intention of buying a couple of kayaks but

while on the internet we saw these stitch and glue makem yourself boats. I purchased the books

The New Kayak Shopand Kayaks You Can Build. Both are available at Chapters or

Amazon.com. We decided this was something we could do. We also discovered www.

clcboats.com which would prove to be a tremendous source of encouragement during the

project. We made a day trip to Toronto to purchase plans for a Chesapeake Light Craft 16 and

some marine-grade plywood. The books have some great suggestions for worktables. We made

a 17' one from some " plywood and some stands from scrap 24s from a recent renovation.

What follows is the the step-by-step story

of the construction of these kayaksfrom

basement worktable in September 2005

through launching in July 2006.

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2

Paddling the south

shore of Ontario'sLake

ofTwoRivers andinto

PogLake.

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EPOXYWORKS Number 27, Fall 2008 3 of 4

4 Checkingfor twist

We made up some stands and clamped thekayak to the worktable. We then checked forany twists in the hull.

5 Taping theseams

We applied masking tape to keep the epoxyglue neat at the seams. We made variousrounded plastic tools to apply the epoxy fil-lets. Its not a bad job once you get the hangof it. Kind of like applying drywall compoundonly more expensive and permanent. One tipthoughafter making your fillets, wait a cou-ple of hours before applying the 3" tape andwetting it out with clear epoxymakes for aneasier, less frustrating job.

6 Layingthe cloth

The outside of the hull gets a layer of 6 oz fi-berglass fabric.

7 First coatofepoxy

We brushed on then squeegeed the first coat ofepoxy. We used WESTSYSTEM207 SpecialCoating Hardener for a nice bright finish.Mom is tipping out any runs with a dry brush.

Well add three or four more coats over thenext few days. One of the books suggested us-ing cardboard orange juice cans for the grungewhile squeegeeinggreat idea.

8 Foot brace details

We made these fully adjustable foot braces

from " oak with an epoxy coating. Theyare easily adjusted by the paddler while sit-ting in the cockpit. The hardware is all stain-less steel and they are fully detachable withno through-hull fasteners. The front boltkeeps the brace on track and the back wingbolt tightens down after adjustment is made.The deck beam was clamped in place and fil-lets appliedagain, no through-hull fasten-ers for this either. The foot braces haveproven to be extremely rugged.

4 5

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7

8

Hey! I thought I was go-

ing tobeon the cover.

Annies getting a little

impatientwith this ep-

oxybusiness. Itsbeena

few days since shes

beenonherwalk. The

kayak hasits fifth and

final coat of epoxy.

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EPOXYWORKS Number 27, Fall 2008.2008 Gougeon Brothers, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 of 4

9 FiberglassingtheDeck

We covered the decks with 4 oz fiberglassand clear epoxy. Mom mixed the epoxy andI applied it. Its a good team job.

10GotClamps?

You can see we used lots of clamps for thisjob. Once the ooze was cleaned up, I re-moved the masking tape from the spacer

stack. It received a coat of clear epoxy whenwe glassed over the coaming rim with 4 ozcloth. It might sound strange, but I foundshaping the coaming enjoyable. It did nottake long with a spokeshave and sandpaperand the result, with epoxy and varnish, waslike a piece of fine furniture.

11Hatch Openings

I applied some wide masking tape to thedeck and strung a center line. I then tracedthe hatch openings from the templates wemade earlier. I carefully cut the openings out

with a sabre saw. You can see our digitalscale on the floor. I periodically weighed thekayaks to monitor the weight progression. Inthe end they came in at 42 lb each.

12Makinghatchcovers

The hatch covers were cut from 4mm marineplywood. The frames were router cut frompoplar. Not a great wood, but it will be en-capsulated with epoxy.

After sanding the kayaks, we applied fivecoats of Z-Spar Captains varnish with an ep-oxy roller and tipped out the bubbles with a

foam brush for a coffee-table finish.We started this project in September 2005and pushed the kayaks out of the basementand carried them to a reservoir down thestreet for sea trails on July 22, 2006.

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12

Taking a breakon

CanisbayLake in Algon-

quin Park,August 2006.

Wepaddled theentire

shorelineof thelakebe-

foremoving on to

SmokeLakethe next

day.Thekids leisurely

paddled the kayaks.My

wifeand I bustedour

asses tryingto keepup

ina rented15 fiberglass

canoe.

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