labrat

That double needle technique should give you a nice seam - looks like it's going well so far. I did a trial on my 8oz poly by making 2 marks a known distance apart and then ironing and measuring the distance afterward. At relatively low temp it was about 5% but at high temp it was around 10%. That was well up the scale on the iron though and anyone contemplating using a hot setting really should try it on a test piece first - a bit of saved time wouldn't be worth the grief of melting a hole in a sewn skin.

Aaron please check your private messages - I have sent some info on another SOF builder in Mandurah (at his request).

Well done Mitch - it sure looks like it belongs on the water. With regard to the water running down the paddle, this normally happens a bit but I think with that particular paddle it will be excessive. The ridge running along the blades provides a channel that picks up more water and lets it run toward you. I had a euro paddle with a similar bracing on it and it was a shocker for water in the boat. Take the time to make a nice greenland paddle with smooth blades - it will be worth the effort. There are a number of articles around on the net that give instructions on how to do it. Just out of curiosity, where were the photos taken?

It would definitely be worth adding to the video Jeff. When I watched it I had the feeling that it ended a bit short of being complete - and that brass strip really does look good. If it seems like too much work you can always get the cat to lend a hand.

I used the double cord method with 8oz polyester on my recent Curlew build and although the first section was not as good as the rest I think the boat turned out better than it would have if done without the cords. It is probably the same as far as needing to be careful about not pulling holes in the 8oz. There were quite a few places where I needed extra paint but nothing too extreme. I don't recall any problem with pushing the needle through but this could be partly due to the lighter skin and also because I used a fine thread and smaller needle. I also went back over it a second time using the same needle holes but with the thread on the other side. I believe this would give at least equal seam strength to one done with a thicker thread. One thing I think I did wrong is to continue the cords down around the ends and try to finish the seam at the bottom. This caused the skin to have an untidy end as it would not flatten out. It would probably be better to finish the cords right at the end of the deck and use the other method from there but not having tried it I'm still unsure about how it would go. Some photos:

A job well done Andrew. That translucent skin looks particularly classy on the water. And would I be right in guessing from the video that the person who criticised your "man sewing" is now your biggest fan?

Received my float bags today and decided to post some info about them in case anyone else is looking. Brand is Harmony, they are shown on Amazon as Stern Flotation Bag: Kayak, with options for 2 sizes. These are labelled Micro (recommended for 8-10' kayaks) and Mini (recommended for 10-13' kayaks). I chose these as they looked to be the closest sizes I could find for the Curlew bow and stern without paying big dollars. I bought 1 of each. Price is between $25 and $30 each. I had to pay for postage as well but these may qualify for free shipping in the USA. May be even better direct from the Harmony web site but as they don't ship outside the USA I didn't look at all the details there. As for the product they appear to be well made. The only problem I have had so far is with inflating the one I put in the bow as the inflating tube really needs to be longer to reach past the leg space. This is not the maker's fault though because they are both marketed as stern bags so would normally be just behind the cockpit. The rear one could be a little longer for Curlew, maybe a couple of feet, but I think it is reasonable - especially for an internet purchase. Photos show fit as best as I can get them to. Stern bag on deck Bow bag on deck Stern in place Bow in place I'd be interested to hear what others think about the fit. I know the idea is to displace as much volume as possible and there is certainly a bit left in the corners here but they do take up the bulk of it as far as I can tell.

Webby, Good to see another "local" builder - which design are you doing? I bought skin, sinew, footrests and the first book all in one hit. I would get all these again (although with plans instead of the book) if doing another build and also add a roll of the stitching twine and a couple of hemostats to the order. I had trouble finding a thread of the right weight. As Jeff says, the postage is a high proportion (around 50% for my order) but I don't think you will find a skin material locally so will need to bring that in anyway. Jeff, your boats are being built right across Australia, do you have any idea how many there would be altogether here now?

There's nothing quite like being the first to paddle into a mirror calm stretch of water. Always fills me with wonder and serenity at the same time. And sunsets with silhouettes aren't bad either .

My thoughts on this are very much like Jeff's except that I prefer the look of baidarkas. We don't get baltic birch here and top quality marine ply is horrendously expensive so I used "hardware store" marine ply. Knowing what to look for helps to avoid getting something unsuitable. WRC is good but in Aus we can also get plantation grown paulownia at a reasonable price. I have read comments elsewhere the WRC bends better (interestingly the opposite of earlier comments in this thread) but I found that for me the paulownia was superior in this regard. I suspect it depends on the degree of grain runout in the particular pieces you have. Totally agree on the 8oz polyester and oil based enamel. I have 3 kayaks, all under 35lb, and even if they only last 5 years the light weight makes them worth more than a heavy boat that lasts forever because it stays in the shed. At the risk of sounding too philosophical it has just occurred to me that while you can't build a good boat out of truly inferior materials you can build a truly inferior boat out of top quality materials.

Sounds like she's volunteering to help . Actually it's looking good in the photos. Yes you can see creases but it still looks taut - should come up nicely when ironed . Getting from the deck to the stern is difficult to do smoothly but yours looks significantly better than mine was at this stage although I used the method with 2 cords wrapped in the seam. (Off topic: What are you going to make with the new "toys"?)

Nah, no crocs here PD - we're on the south coast of Australia, crocs are only up north. The most dangerous things in that river are probably the pelicans . We do get white pointers, bronze whalers and even makos in the sea here but we don't let that stop us. Jeff, you're welcome to use any photos and hopefully I'll have some better ones over the next month or so. The ones already posted are reduced size versions so if you want any of them in higher resolution let me know.

Thanks Bryan. Don't rush yours too much, take the time to enjoy the build. And remember - it's the time and effort that goes into it that makes that first paddle so special.

I think it's around 2 kangaroo tails to 1 US dollar at the moment In Australia today it's ANZAC day, a commemoration of the sacrifices made during wartime and particularly the distrastrous campaign at Gallipoli in WW1. Not being one for public gatherings I tend to slink off and have my own time for reflection on these things. Since being out on the water is an ideal location for this I took the curlew out for her first leak test in our local river, the Onkaparinga. During the paddle there was a flyover of 5 WW1 biplanes and just after returning an Orion went over as well. Here she is ready to go. I mentioned in the first post that I had put the floorboards on top of the frame instead of under and was unsure if it would affect stability much. At first I thought it had because she felt very wobbly - and uncomfortable. However after a while things settled down and I spent some time fishing so it can't be too bad after all . Bear in mind that I usually fish from a craft designed for stability on the sea and it has a SF of 130! Since Curlew is rated at 95 (from memory) and the seat is above design height it's really done well. I intend to shape the seat pad so this could lower me by an inch and this should help a bit. If I find it needs a bit more over the long term then I can always lower the floor boards too. The back rest feels too low as is and I hope that scooping out the seat pad a bit will also help with that. It's a case of one step at a time. Took a fishing rod and some plastic lures just in case Not much cockpit room compared to my other boats - might need to modify storage methods for this one. Still have to put rear deck bungees on yet and then will sort out just how much stuff I can store on deck. This is at Perry's Bend a few km upstream and a popular picnic spot. Really felt quite good toward the end despite the seat discomfort. Spent about 15 minutes talking to 2 retired blokes who had been out at the same time on plastic SOTs. They were quite interested and appreciative of the design and build technique.

You're doing a neat job Bryan but yes there does look to be something amiss. At first I thought it was with the mopunting brackets because there doesn't seem to be enough rocker. A bit more rocker at the front would make the keel come up at an angle and be a closer fit. However I looked back at Gorn's build and his doesn't seem to have much rocker either. Also I notice the 2 brackets shown in one of your photos are identical so the front part of the keel is meant to be essentially flat. This suggests there is something wrong with the bow piece itself. It doesn't seem to be pointing upward enough compared to Gorn's build and the photos on the Kudzu web site. The bow and stern aren't swapped are they? I only ask because the stern looks to be flatter. The only other thing I can think of is that the marking out has an error somewhere - it's easy to do (guess how I know ) - but it looks as though you are working from printed plans so that shouldn't be it. Keep at it , you'll work it out eventually.

Oi!....it's not quite done yet - there's still the seat to go ;)Next post should be when it's been on the water and I hope to put up a few outing reports in the next few months as well.

Jeff's comment in another thread about fining people for not posting photos has finally jolted me into action The build is a Curlew using the offsets and other info from Jeff's book. I bought the sinew, polyester skin fabric and some adjustable footrests from Jeff well over a year ago .Since the hull build takes up a lot of my shed space I decided to build the coaming first as it can be stored easily enough while the rest comes together. It was mainly from recycled timber blinds with a western red cedar lip. It was coated in epoxy as both the timber types are very soft.Should have put a few more clamps on – I can see gaps.I wanted to keep the use of glues and fasteners to a minimum so the stern and bow sub assemblies are lashed together.Stringers are paulownia and are just over ¾” thick as I wanted to buy enough timber to do a strip hull as well so this was the thickness of the planks I bought. The ply is hardwood marine grade and while not top quality at least the quantity/size of voids is certainly better than construction grade.I found the use of tie down straps with nylon buckles worked well to hold the stringers and I suspect it gives better control than bungees but must admit I didn’t try them.Problems I’ve had:- Made a mistake on marking out one frame so one apex was about an inch too far out. Not found until all lashing was done and the assembly taken off the strongback. Easy enough to fix though.- The entire assembly corkscrewed when I took it off the strongback. I spent weeks trying to figure out why it sprang that way when not held in place. I can only assume that a number of the stringers had bends that aligned and pushed it that way. In the end I used brute force to twist it back past straight to corkscrew in the other direction and held it that way for some days. It is still not 100% but is as close as I can get it.There were other little difficulties but they were the type of thing that you always get when trying a new technique.There are a few variations from standard.- Having read about the tendency for the frame in front of the cockpit to rub on the calves I decided to cut out the bottom of that frame and make another half frame to fit under my knees. I think this is slightly different from how others have done it but it seems to work.- I used larger than usual timber for the fanny beams and made the 2 side fore deck beams extra long so they run down to meet the next frame.- Fumbled around with some timber trying to make suitable mounts for the adjustable footrests but with space at a premium it was too hard. It needed something thin but strong and I found some stainless sheet left over from another project so I cut some strips off that and ended up with something a bit agricultural but light and compact.- Mounted the floor boards on top of the frames instead of under. This is just my personal preference and only experience will tell if the stability is compromised so it’s a case of wait and see at this stage.This photo shows all of these.I used an old solder gun to cut the polyester skin and it worked very well.My seams are reasonably straight but the stitching is not as neat as could be. Skin unironed After ironing Interior facing forwardThe paint is an oil base gloss enamel. I have ideas for something more artistic but at present it is just plain white. Three coats on so far with a few pull holes along the seam still to seal. As usual the paint shows up all the things you don’t want to see.Weight so far is between 12 and 13kg (about 26.5 – 29 lb). With only the seat to go it should be under 15kg when ready to launch which could be another couple of weeks yet as I want the paint to harden up a bit first.Overall I don’t think it’s up to the standards of some other builders here but it should still be a good boat.The proof will be in the paddling .

Looks like you've made a good job of it Pat. And 11 miles is impressive for a first go. As for falling in the water well at least the water would be a bit warmer than somewhere up north like Michigan. Some people say having the seat pad a bit longer can help with comfort as a bit more weight is taken by the thighs. Might be worth experimenting with.

Yep, the late nights sure stack the odds against you - but at least you've picked up the errors and this building method is about the easiest to correct at this stage. It's looking really good Aaron - just keep plugging away when you can.

Well that sounds like good news for Aaron - and it goes to show you learn something new every day!

.....and then again they might - the bloke I bought mine from on the gold coast is a board maker and there is another board maker in Vic that sells timber as boards or as glued up blanks.Aaron, I am concerned that you used Titebond for glueing your scarf joints. The standard for these is a good quality epoxy and I don't know of any experienced builders who would use anything else. Epoxy will fill small voids but unless the surfaces are perfect the Titebond is likely to leave some areas of the surface unconnected. See what other feedback you get here as someone may have found that Titebond works for them but in the absence of any supporting posts I would be remaking those joints with epoxy.

I had already decided to do this with the keel but will stick to the normal method for the other stringers. I believe that a hole through the beam will leave it a tiny bit stronger than a notch on the side. I agree that it will probably require a needle but for 7 or 8 lashings this doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Will post some photos when done.

Hi there Joe, (pardon me for butting in) I am building Curlew from the information in the book as well and have come up against the same problems. I get the impression that the original design had the centre deck stringer stop short of the other 2 but this was later modified. There's a photo in Jeff's Curlew reskin thread where it looks like the centre stringer was extended by scarfing another piece onto it. http://messing-about.com/forums/topic/7429-curlew-reskin/ Anyhow I have just modified the frame immediately in front of the deck so it will take the longer stringer. There are a few other little things that an experienced builder would probably deal with easily but that I am taking some time to work out because this construction method is new to me. One other is the bottom of the bow piece - a dimension is missing that is needed to make it fit over the keel stringer. There is a lot of information in these forums if you go back through them. A particularly good example of a Curlew build with some very clear photos of the frame is Hirilonde's and is found here: http://messing-about.com/forums/topic/7754-curlew-too/ I think most of the answers are already on the forum here somewhere but there is also a corrections page on the Kudzu craft site : http://www.kudzucraft.com/books/corrections.php

Glad to be of help - did you find any paulownia locally? I gather from your comment about using thicker stringers that you had settled on using it.

OK Aaron, possibly a bit more good news for you - it sure was for me. I rang Gunnersen timber today to see who their local retailers are because I found 2 types of marine ply on their website and they are Australia wide. They offer hoop pine ply to AS2272 which is top class stuff (better than BS1088) but it retails for $270! There is also a BS1088. They recommended Bunnings so I went there after work and ended up with a sheet of BS1088 hardwood marine ply for $79 (including having it cut in half). I'm not sure who your local retailer would be but if you ring the Perth branch of Gunnersens they will be able to point you in the right direction. This stuff is probably not as good as the AS2272 but it does look good - 9 plies and very few voids. The advantage of more plies is that even if there are voids they are only small. With the 3 ply stuff you lose a third of the material thickness. This is the cut edge of my BS1088 sheet. This view seems typical. This is the BS1088 stack in the store. You can make out some small edge voids. This is the stack of construction ply in the store - voids galore! Let us know how you get on with both the paulownia and the ply.