8 replies to this topic

[sansol]

I recently got plans for a shad. I decided to start with the coaming, a laminated coaming. I have made a jig and looking for material. But I have a few questions:
1. the coaming on the front of the manual and the green shad on the webpage look upswept in the front. How can i make one like that?
2. when the coaming is finished. What is the height, thickness of the coaming and the rim?

Sander

[Hirilonde]

I think it just looks that way. The coaming itself is flat, but it is oriented higher forward once sewn into the boat. The frames at the forward and aft ends of the cockpit support the coaming and orient is appropriately.

[FloatingBear]

Check out the video on the Kudzu site.


http://kudzucraft.ku...deo/coaming.php

[P Douglass (WA)]

The heigh and thickness are really dictated by you. I did one a while back to use on my next build. The heigh is around 1 3/4" , thickness of the bottom is just shy of 1/2" , the lip is stick out about 1/2" on the sides and a little over 3/4" on the front and rear. I added a couple extra strips front and rear. Just for cosmetics. I also stepped down each layer around the lip a little so I could round over the top. Again cosmetic. Maybe you can tell what I am trying to describe in the pictures.

Attached Files

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[Kudzu]

The curve is 'forced' in when you sew it. It's not built into the coaming. If you watch the last(?) of my 3 part skinning video you see it. It is under tension and pulling the fabric tight when on the boat.

Also have a video on building the laminated coaming and I talk about sizes. But it is up to you. I prefer the look of a shorter coaming but that is just my preference. (I am kind of picky about looks) It just needs to be tall enough to drill the holes and be able to get your skirt over the lip and hold it in place securely.

[sansol]

Thank you all for your contribution. It have given me the informations I feel I need to start building the coaming. It also have given me confidence to start building. I now know you are there with your experience for us firsttimers.

Sander

[Kudzu]

Best advice is don't be afraid to mess up. You can always, worst case, start over.

I built and redesigned the Cast Away frame three times before I got what I wanted. Mistakes are just learning moments. Some of have more than others! :-)

[Joe Feager]

Since the subject was already available I thought I'd continue the thread with a slightly different subject.  I finally got around to doing a trial layout from the offsets in the book and decided to make some changes.  I use a Seals 1.7 on my Pygmy's and want to stay with that size coaming and skirt.  There is not a lot of difference anyway.  Pygmy's are 17" by 33".  Changing the width was the easy part and doing a proportional calculation from the X=10 position back to the X=1 generated a smooth curve.  I wasn't so lucky from X=10 forward to X=34.  Changing X=34 to a Y of 0 really caused me some problems.  I eventually got something worked out but resorted to the use of a flexible curve from position 31 to 34.  Now I'm thinking I should have done something that changed the X dimension of the widest point instead of working from that point fore and aft.  I didn't try the XY scatter function in Excel and maybe I should have.  Anyway, I have a workable drawing now.

 

Joe

[andy00]

Joe:

Like you, I have a Pygmy boat and just finished a Kudzu boat (Ravenswood). Unlike you, I wasn't clever enough to plan ahead to use my Seals 1.7 skirt. The good news is that Seals made me a custom skirt from a tracing of the Ravenswood coaming, which I ordered thru one of their local dealers (Campmor). It took only a couple weeks and cost me the same as a standard size skirt. Now, if I was doing it again, I would simply trace the Pygmy coaming and make one just like it for the SOF boat. As you wrote, the overall dimensions of the two coamings are pretty close. Just leave the ends of the deck beams a bit long until you figure out how the coaming will rest on them. The Pygmy coaming has a little peak at the forward end, but I don't think that flattening that out would change the fit of the skirt significantly.

Fair winds and a happy 2013, Andy