Echo Valley

Yep, paddle making is fun...and inexpensive. Handmade/self built kayaks, whether SOF or wood strip get a lot of attention when we take them out on the water, couple them with a wooden stick and you get more questions and looks.

I've got a Curlew and fish from it (act like I'm fishing) weekly. Used my fly rod once, and while the motion is fine, stripping the line is a bit messy, I try to keep it on the half skirt but it usually ends up in the water. Word of advice, set up the line BEFORE you're out on the water. I had to dunk it to get the line through the end. And what Jeff said about abrasion. Scott

I'd consider it. It's about a 5.5 hr drive from my old ky home.

No disrespect taken. I looked over my build journal and found that before paint or any outfitting it weighed 30.5 lbs. Used western red cedar & baltic birch. After paint, webbing, soft padeyes, toggle, minicell seat, backband & float bags I reweighed and it came in @ 35.5 lbs. I've probably used more paint than necessary on the hull since I'm kinda clumsy.

For me, a kayak made with 3oz. would not last long. I'm not real rough on my Curlew, but I bump stuff, drag it where I should lift and sometimes I don't gorilla scoot well enough off a concrete ramp and end up needing my sponge more than I want. Fortunately the abrasions (if not to bad) can be repaired with just another coat of paint and it's good to go again. My Curlew outfitted and all comes in at 37 lbs. Can't remember, but probably used 8oz. Dacron from Jeff.

Good job on the Curlew. I never tire of answering the question of "did you build that" build yes...design, nope that honor goes to Jeff @ Kudzu Craft. Oh, and I'll have to remember the "kayak display" line.

I've only built one SOF and used pure tung oil. First coat thinned it a bit with mineral spirits, subsequent coats were not thinned. Next boat I'll probably try something else just see if I prefer one over the other.

Eventually I'll have 3 kayaks to haul, only 2 will fit on the roof rack so I have thought about a trailer, however the one thing that concerns me is inattentive drivers. Yeah, it can happen anytime but I'd be really ticked if some texting while driving dummy rear ended my trailer loaded with handmade kayaks and bashed them up.

I'm guessing you've used polyester, so if that's correct it will shrink out the wrinkles very well. I was amazed at just how much the poly shrank, it really cleaned up those areas that I was somewhat concerned about. Judging from your picture, you'll be fine.

I've only skinned one kayak so far, used Jeff's plans/methods/instructions. The stitching came out fine and once shrunk and painted ends up looking somewhat like a length of braided rope and IMO adds to the overall look. The few times I've had the Curlew out as well as visitors to the boat building shop aka "our garage" has brought nothing but positive comments and interest in the construction methods used. I'm a rookie at building SOF boats using this method, but would not hesitate at all in building another one...which reminds me, I need to build one for fishing.

Yeah, nothing wrong with the sewing from what I see. We all have different thresholds of what we can be happy with when building, but remember, the water won't mind one bit what the stitching looks like.

Moving along nicely. You'll be in the water soon.

Decided it was launch day for the Curlew. Chose a quiet lake, with minimal motorized traffic. Overall experience was good, need to make minor adjustments to foot rests & minicell foam seat. Also need to get a thermometer so I don't get so wet testing the water temp. :-)

One of the things I quickly learned when I started looking around for lumber to build my SOF & wood stripper was that tracking down who carried different species of wood took some time. Forget the big box stores for western red cedar, redwood or BB. Local lumber yards around my area (Louisville Metro) carried WRC & redwood as well as marine ply which I was ready to use until I talked to a friend of a friend who worked in veneer and told me to check out one of their suppliers, Hood Distribution. Sure enough, they had 1/2"x 5x5 BB for $35 a sheet. Took a few weeks to find it, but with due diligence it can be found. Hood Dist. is located mostly in the southeast. I would think in other parts of the country there would be similar companies. Finding suppliers for this & that is just part of the building process. If you decide to construct your own float bags out of vinyl, check your local fabric store, but for the HH-66 vinyl cement I could only find that online. Happy Building.

I've only built one SOF so far, used polyester and I certainly like how it's turned out. So yeah, I'd still go for polyester even with the price increase, besides I'm probably the slowest builder around so I'd have plenty of time to save up my dollars. Willis approves as well.