From Attic to Ocean

There is surely nothing as satisfying as shopping for tools.

Building
The first part of the building process was preparing the frame for the decking and planking (bottom and top shell) to be attached. Despite its age, the frame was in good condition but needed a once over with the plane so that the ply would sit flush against the still square chines and keelson. Once done, the plywood sheets had to be bent around and clamped onto the frame so they could be marked out and cut to size with a jigsaw. I then pre-drilled the ply before gluing and screwing the sheets in place. Since I wanted this to last, I was using a waterproof adhesive called Gorilla Glue and brass coated screws.

Already, there were problems to figure out. The largest sheets of plywood available were still too short to cover the length of the kayak. The plans I found in the attic didn’t mention any sort of joins but the instructions in my online article suggested using either a scarf or butt joint, one at either end in order to cover the whole length of the boat. I chose the butt joint for its simplicity.

Between fitting each section of hull, I had to smooth off the edges with a plane and surform so they would be flush with the sides. Once the bottom and sides were on, I gave the inside a few coats of an epoxy based timber sealer. This penetrates the wood and prevents rotting. That just left the decking on top to be done. Pieces for the fore and aft were bent over the cross frames and held down at the edges. Finally, the hull enclosed the entire boat save the cockpit. I had something that looked like it might float.

My next task was adding the trim, starting with the mahogany splashboards around the cockpit. The timber supplier had machined a couple of 10mm thick strips, leaving me to cut out the right curves so they would fit nicely across the rounded top of the deck. I used a cardboard template to stencil the shape of the front and rear edges of the cockpit onto the mahogany strips before cutting them with the jigsaw.

For the floor of the cockpit, the plans didn’t specify a particular timber but I did have plenty of plywood left, although it was a little thin. The solution was to take two sheets, roughly 50x1000mm, and press them together. I smeared glue between them and weighted them tight with heavy stone planters from the garden. After a day this left me with a piece of 12mm plywood that I cut into six planks and tacked in place to make a sturdy seat of floorboards.

The rub rails that would run the length of the sides and bottom were 25mm thick mahogany, with the corners rounded off. The bottom piece also had a v-shaped channel cut in one side so that it could sit over the peak of the keel. Since mahogany is a hardwood and the rails were thick, as per the plans, bending them around the tighter curves on the hull was tricky. It would take plenty of manpower, some long screws and my trusty Gorilla Glue. Although one small crack did occur, once sanded back and varnished it would be hard to spot.

With the construction finished, the hull had to be properly sealed. Wood filler was used to cover the countersunk screw holes and other imperfections. After some sanding, the outside received the same epoxy treatment as the inside. It took five to six coats applied wet-on-wet to properly saturate the wood and seal out moisture that might cause it to rot further down the track. Once done, I was left with a denser, harder surface that could be sanded smooth and painted or varnished over.

For the bottom and sides I used a three layer system of a speciality boat primer, undercoat and topcoat. It wasn’t cheap but along with the sealant it will hopefully make for a long lasting finish. The top deck and trim work I finished with four coats of polyurethane, sanding between each coat to ensure a smooth finish.

All my kayak was missing now was a name. It took the help of a group of friends stuck in a bach over a rainy New Years to come up with the slightly jaunty, Just Canoodlin’. The pun wasn’t perfect for a kayak, but we talked about it so much it just stuck. Using a laser printer, some adhesive paper, a scalpel and steady hand, I created a stencil in my chosen font. Stuck to either side of the bow, it looked like it would make quick work of what could have been a very tricky painting job. Unfortunately the stencil did not want to come off cleanly, leaving me with some very rough edged lettering. Some careful freehand work with a fine brush worked well to tidy everything up.

The launch
I had put so much time and effort in the project, but it was only as I came close to finishing it that I began to worry about how it would perform. Would it leak? Would it be hard to paddle? How stable would it be? The only way to find out was to give it a shot, so one sunny late summer afternoon I assembled a few friends and headed down to the local beach for a boat launch. A toast was made and champagne was consumed – not smashed on the bow. A captain's hat was donned and Just Canoodlin' was carried out to the water.

It sat high, stable on the water. A test paddle revealed it to be manoeuvrable, relatively quick and not at all leaky. To say I was happy with the results would be an understatement. Two hundred hours of my free time had gone into this project and now, fifty or so years after it was started, the kayak was finally at sea - Mr Miller, wherever he was, could be proud.