dbirkmei

It paddles better than I ever expected. Nice tracking. It's initial stability is medium but has great secondary stability. I can see that he is getting used to it and is not worried that it will tip over. It is a joy to carry from the car top to water being around 25lbs. I started with the Sea Flea 11 plans and added 2 inches to the cockpit and increased the height of the second frame to allow easy entry and a little more foot room. I bought an adult Pelican adult paddle at Dicks Sporting Goods for $30 and shortened it 14 inches by cutting about 7 inches off each end of the 2 piece handle where the blade is attached. After cutting the tubes off the blades I re-epoxied them on the shortened handle. I custom made the backrest and roof rack. The seat is cut up garden kneeling pad found at most big box stores. I will post some more pictures of it on the water.

I used varnish on my kayak and was not real happy the way it did not seem to fill the fabric and the voids it shows on top of the frame. Next time I would experiment with thinning the varnish on the first coat. A transparent stain might have helped even out the color. Not to worry, the more the boat gets used the less it will matter.

Here is the Yostwerks Sea Flea 11 that I am building for my 8yr old son. I used 8oz polyester from the Kudzu Craft store and have 3 coats of Pettit Flagship Z-Spar 2015 varnish on it. It turned out pretty good. I think I should have thinned the first coat of varnish to get better fabric penetration. I guess I will try that on the next one. The redwood was reclaimed on a work weekend from the facias on Toledo Ski Club Lodge in Wallon Lake Michgan (20 ft clear and might I say free). http://www.toledoskiclub.net/ I would like to thank Jeff and his Kudzu Craft Site for all the great information about building boats. Next items are to add a seat, deck hardware and get it wet. Should be on the water next week. Dave Birkmeier Michigan

Here are pics of the coaming I built.

In the videos it looks like the thread that is used for skinning is different that the lashing sinew. Any suggestions on what works best.

I built my coaming from 3 thin pieces of maple about 2 tall and then cut them down to 1 1/2 on the table saw after I removed it from the form. It might be 1/4" to 3/8" thick. For the coaming lip I epoxied 2 bands of 7mm stranded rope around the edge of the coaming. There is a small epoxy fillet on the underside. I will add some pictures tonight.

What about the finish on the frame? I am building a 11 ft Yost Werks Sea Flea for my son and have been using recycled redwood for stringers and mahogany plywood for the frames. The plywood is not marine stock so I have been using epoxy seal them. I see that the frames are typically oil finished and wonder if epoxy sealing instead would yield any issues other than overkill. My building technique is a little bit of Yost and Kudzu as I have epoxied, pegged and lashed all my joints. I have built a Guillemot cedar strip and Pygmy Coho SG. I love my other boats but can't wait to put this new one on the water. Your videos are very helpful. Thanks Dave.