Jump to content

Will Koenig

Members
  • Posts

    11
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Will Koenig

  1. Thanks, Jeff! Is there a rule of thumb you'd recommend for minimum paddler weight? For my Curlew and its 250 lb design displacement, I'm right there with 200 lbs of me, 30 lbs of boat, and 10 lbs of clothes/vest/paddle/gear. Your friend's 110 lb girlfriend would be like 150 lb displacement, and that was way too light. So is the range like +/- 20% (200 to 300 lbs displacement)? I need to pick another one of these to build for my wife, and she's quite a bit smaller than me.
  2. What's the relationship between paddler weight and kayak stability? For example, in my Curlew with a stability factor of 93 and a max displacement of 300 pounds, is it more or less stable for me at 200 pounds, my neighbor at 150 pounds, or a kid at 100 pounds? What's that curve look like? Is the difference negligible? What happens at the extremes (way overloaded and with no load)? Is it something I can calculate? This isn't specific to Kudzu kayaks, but I figured this would be a good place to ask. Thanks!
  3. I failed to follow the instructions and assembled my whole plywood coaming with just glue between the three layers, then drilled the sides like for a solid coaming and sewed it in. I was worried that the fabric would slip out if it was just sandwiched.
  4. I like the idea with the brace. I'll do that. I'm 100% confident that I'll be rock solid with a little bit of practice. I just sat on a Thermarest closed cell foam pad folded in half, so I wasn't more than an inch off the bottom. I felt a little wobbly sitting up straight, but it was stable enough that I never felt in danger of capsizing. I could comfortably (albeit carefully) lean it over until the gunwale dipped in the water. I probably could have leaned it over farther, but I was by myself and didn't want to risk dumping over in the middle of the lake. I don't have any basis for comparison on the performance. I'm a woodworker that built a kayak, not a kayaker. I'll try to get some input from someone that knows something about kayaks and report back. It definitely felt smoother, faster, and more nimble than I remember with the cheap plastic boats.
  5. Thanks! I'll see what I can do, but it'll probably be next spring before it goes back out on the water. I'm a rank amateur and not equipped for cold water.
  6. I built a Curlew to go with my Stonefly canoe. Launched it on a beautiful 70 degree day. I've only ever paddled wide, super stable plastic kayaks, so it took me some time to get used to the lower stability. After half an hour of paddling, I was comfortable but still with plenty of room for improvement. I think I'll be very happy with it. Jeff mentioned in one of his videos that he recommends going with the laminated coaming instead of the plywood. If I do another one, I'll laminate for sure. Once in use, the plywood wasn't as rigid as it seemed like it would be during assembly. Finished weight is right at 30 pounds. 10oz polyester from George Dyson Western red cedar stringers Baltic birch plywood frames and coaming Artificial sinew bindings (waxed polyester) Rustoleum enamel paint on the fabric Helmsman's spar urethane on the wood
  7. It floats!! First SOF project under my belt. This was a fun build, and it's been paddling around our local lakes for most of the summer. I definitely need to add rub strips so I don't have to be so sensitive about the concrete boat ramps. I also need to replace the rear thwart with something curved and comfortable to lean against.
  8. Slight edit to correct an error on my horribly rough sketch.
  9. Following up on this for others' benefit. The top of the frame needs to be cut wide to make the joint work. It's drawn in the book with the inwale, the top of the plywood frame, and the outwale all 5/8" wide. See attached photograph from the book (Jeff - I hope that's OK. If not, let me know and I'll delete it.). I laid out my frame tops at 5/8" wide in 2D and cut it with a jigsaw, but that leaves the edges square to the face. When the gunwales actually meet the top of the frame in 3D, the gunwales are coming at an angle, so the top of the frame needs to be a parallelogram to get a tight fit. See attached horribly crude sketch. The "too narrow" middle sketch is what I had, and it got to be quite a bit less than 5/8" when I took it down to a parallelogram shape with a chisel and rasp. Also, the angle on the parallelogram changes from the middle (where it's close to 90 degrees) to the ends (where it's a bigger angle), but I had to cut all of my frame tops down by the same amount to get a consistent space between the inwale and outwale. Some of them ended up needing shims. I worried about the weakened joints for a while, but it hasn't been an issue. If I did it again, I'd leave the frame tops 1" wide or more to give me room to whittle them down to fit. I feel like I could have eyeballed it after the frame was assembled and cut it close to the right shape with a handsaw, and then fine tuned it from there. Also, Titebond III worked perfectly. No issues on the glueup once I got it all to fit. The build was an overall grand success. I need to post my launch day pictures!
  10. Thanks, Jeff! I can do that. Do you have a strong preference for TBIII over polyurethane glue or epoxy?
  11. I'm building a Stonefly canoe from the Fuselage Frame Kayaks book and I'm almost ready to install the gunwales, but it's not clear to me how the gunwales attach to the frames. The only reference to this that I see in the book is a line on page 97 that reads, "So take a rasp and file the frame down to get a good flush fit since these will have to be glued instead of lashed." I understand how the inwale and outwale are glued together with the blocking between, but is it only a glue joint holding the gunwales to the frames? Is that all there is to it, or should this be doweled or screwed as well? Considering that this connection may take a lot of force, I'm wondering if it might be too weak just gluing the face of the gunwales to the edge grain of the plywood frame. This is my first SOF build, and it's been very straightforward so far. I'm excited to get it on the water!
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.