Kayak Progress

2005-07-05 10:40 ☼ post

After almost a month of waiting, the aluminum tubes I ordered for my kayak frame finally arrived last week. Of course with all the house related projects I had to take care of before last Saturday’s big barbecue I didn’t really have any free time to start working on the kayak again until yesterday. The frame came together quite quickly once I set down to work and started drilling holes and assembling the stringers. I still need to buy some kind of tube bender and some 1 and 1/2 inch aluminum plate today so that I can start connecting the chines and gunwales at the stem and stern, but I should definitely be ready to start skinning by next week.

As far as the skin goes, Tom Yost recommends Mauritz Online for buying the 18oz vinyl coated polyester used for his designs, but since you have to actually call them to place an order I decided to look around for a place where web orders are possible. A quick search on froogle for HH-66 vinyl glue turned up Rochford Supply and after a little poking around I determined that they also sell 18oz vinyl coated polyester in a variety of different colors for just under $7 a yard. I placed an order and also setup an account with them so that the next time I have a kayak related project it will only take me a couple minutes to order everything I need.

My goal at this point is to get the kayak finished up by the middle of July so that I can use it if we go visit a couple of our different friends that have lake places. I’d also like to start figuring out if there are any good lakes with easy paddling access nearby that are less than 30-45 minutes away. There are several little lakes in the Cheney/Medical Lake area, but I have no idea how accessible they are at this point.