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Building a FreeB 12 Kayak


soitios

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I'm on a quest, a quest to build a FreeB kayak! The story is that while putting together a stitch and glue pygmy boats taiga canoe with my brother in Riverside, CA and doing research about the build, I stumbled upon the SOF style of kayaks and Kudzu boats! The taiga build has some down time while we wait for epoxy to set, so I thought ...why not work on two boats at once!!

 

Currently, I'm sourcing materials:

Anderson International Trading, Inc, in Anaheim has 1/2" Okoume for $108 per sheet and 9 ply, 1/2" Finland birch (exterior adhesive), for $72. Probably either will do? They tell me the Okoume is lighter, I haven't looked up how much lighter yet. As this is my first kayak of this style, maybe it's not worth the extra cost.

 

Then there's the stringers. Ganahl lumber has Western Red Cedar of various sizes that might work. A rough, select tight knot (they say knots smaller than a pencil lead), 8 foot long piece of 2x8 is $29. The same material but without knots and straight grain is double the cost. There are also clear, vertical grain 1x8x8ft Douglas fir boards available for $35... is fir good for stringers?

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Look for a fence place. Out here it's all cedar or redwood, and you can get long 1 and 2x cheaper and better than a lumberyard, usually.

A fence guy may even have some wood that's "too dry" to use. For folks averse to predrilling for fasteners.

I get 16 foot 1x12s for 15-20 bucks from the fence guy that are passable quality, and he lets me dig. All come from his "too dry" container...

Take the time to build a relationship. Grease the wheels. If you're a name and not a number, the game changes.

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Bought wood! Anderson international had 1/2" okoume plywood, but they also had Meranti Hydrotek at half the price. I couldn't say no and bought a sheet. Anyone used 1/2" Meranti plywood before?

 

For stringers, I got a 2x12x8 at Ganahl lumber for a little over $100. They had much cheaper wood full of knots, I looked through a few stacks of it and couldn't find anything I found worth the money. Although expensive and rough finish, the piece I got has zero knots and straight grain.

 

A question I had about the profiles was the length of the bow and stern frames. The offsets for the FreeB give the shape of the bow as well as the slope of the bow frame as its profile slopes aft, but how long should it be? How long should the stern be? How does 12" for the stern frame and 15" for the bow frame sound? During the build, is it obvious where the stringers should connect to the bow and stern frames, or is there an ideal position?

 

Thanks

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Hydrotek is a true BS 1088 marine plywood.  The Okoume you mention may well be also.  Both are superb choices for frames.  Meranti is heavier and more abrasion resistant.  It is a tough choice between them, but I like light weight.  I am building a lapstrake cat/catch right now and using BS 1088 through out.  Okoume for most of it and Sapele for the transom and decks as they will be varnished.

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The stems go where they go. The ends of the stems should be the proper distance apart, they should be centered and plumb. The gunwales meet the sheer, the chines meet each other, and everything should be fair.

Search the forum, you may not be the first to wonder...

And there are some pictures you can study.

I am not affiliated in any way, but Kudzu's plans are a superb value if you're inexperienced with the style/method.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the replies!

 

Here are some pictures of my progress so far. I would love feedback or questions!

 

 

My strongback, built from 3/4" plywood that was lying around. It's incredibly strong. Definitely overbuild :P
post-4824-0-86232900-1422554721_thumb.jpg

 

After gluing on the patterns that I printed at the FedEx printing center and cutting out with my dewalt jigsaw, I added a 1/4" fillet on the inside. After this I hand sanded and filled in any random voids with epoxy thickened with wood flour.

post-4824-0-45805100-1422554722_thumb.jpg

 

All the stringers cut from my WRC 2x8x8, with wood left over!

post-4824-0-04939000-1422554723_thumb.jpg

 

I am still amazed by how nice the grain looks.

post-4824-0-70389200-1422554723_thumb.jpg

 

Quick jig to cut scarfs. I definitely could have made a better jig. This one worked but only if I babied the wood on the way through the saw and got my hands uncomfortably close to the blade.

post-4824-0-41199500-1422554724_thumb.jpg

 

Scarfs all cut, ready for glue! They're 7" long.

post-4824-0-00473400-1422554725_thumb.jpg

 

Scarfs clamped, used 3" clamps and titebond III

post-4824-0-64364500-1422554725_thumb.jpg

 

The garbage bag between the straight edge ( 2x4's ripped in half) and the cedar worked really well

post-4824-0-31905500-1422554726_thumb.jpg

 

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You bet, straight from harbor freight. They seem to work great, and look just like any other C-clamp I've ever used. The only thing I hated was the sale sticker was on the clamp threads, making me have to carefully remove to for smooth clamp operation, which was so annoying!

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  • 3 weeks later...

At last, I've lashed up the entire frame! The lashing itself was a lot easier than I thought. Like Jeff suggested, I pulled some artificial sinew until it broke to get a feel for how much stress it can take, then just went at it...

 

The hardest part was fitting the bow and stern as well as rasping the stringers to fit the bow and stern. The first couple ones I didn't do very well - I got the hang of it after that, but it still took me at least half an hour per joint.

 

I'll get some pictures of the frame up really soon - I'm going to skin and paint this week!

 

About skinning. In this video (starting at 2:10), Jeff describes sewing the bow and stern without a seam, tugging on the fabric as he goes so as to not require a seam on the bow. How well does this work with 8 ounce polyester?

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About skinning. In this video (starting at 2:10), Jeff describes sewing the bow and stern without a seam, tugging on the fabric as he goes so as to not require a seam on the bow. How well does this work with 8 ounce polyester?

 

Totally academic question.  In the video Jeff is skinning a Ravenswood or one of his other fine entry bow boats.  It will not work on a FreeB 12.  I did a seamless bow on my Ravenswood and couldn't even get close on my FREEB 12.

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Thanks Dave, that helps. I was also curious about how the frames lash to the stringers. Does anyone rasp the stringer locations on the frames to be tapered to accept the stringers better? Lashing really pulls the stringer into the frame. Because the frame is much harder wood than the stringer, the edge of the frame bites into the stringer. If the frame was tapered, there would be better contact between it and the stringer.

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.. Does anyone rasp the stringer locations on the frames to be tapered to accept the stringers better? Lashing really pulls the stringer into the frame. Because the frame is much harder wood than the stringer, the edge of the frame bites into the stringer.

 

 

Only on Stonefly at the Gunwale where it shows. It won't hurt anything either way but I never do it.

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Here come the photos of the frame. I learned a lot putting this together, in some ways I wish i could start over :P ... I was in a hurry so I made some quick foot rests out of wood like I saw someone else on the forum do. It definitely works, but it's a clumsy solution. Next time I'll buy footrests.

 

I was scared for the longest time that when I released the frames from the strongback everything was going to flex on me, ruining all my work, but to my surprise, nothing moved! The frame is quite stiff.

 

 

post-4824-0-28486500-1424278662_thumb.jpg

 

post-4824-0-93274900-1424278662_thumb.jpg

 

post-4824-0-63722400-1424278663_thumb.jpg

 

post-4824-0-29233600-1424278664_thumb.jpg

 

post-4824-0-87804300-1424278664_thumb.jpg

 

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I had a question about sealing pull holes. See the photo below. I just finished putting in the coaming today, tomorrow I'll do the whip stitch. I got the idea to use a bead of caulk along the running stitch before I do the whip stitch to seal up all the little holes I made, particularly in the bow and stern edge. Anyone tried this? ... is this overkill?

 

 

post-4824-0-33775000-1424318108_thumb.jpg

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