hokeyhydro

Got me a tad confused - do tell, why is a reefing plan for sprits simpler than reefing with wishbones? Please keep any explanation in the "reefing for dummies" catagory since I have only worked with sloop rigs.

I believe you are correct, Mike. Tale I read claimed a sprit shattered. I doubt blowing up even a "closet pole" sprit would happen with the average CS pilot, but with Graham tuning the rig it's sort of like hitting the nitrous bottle on a Hemi. Poor cedar pole wasn't rated for that kind of horsepower :-)

Me cheap. I priced double blocks for a catamaran mainsheet and said, no way. Built my own. Two years into the drill and they still work just fine. Knocked together a swivel block & cam cleat as well but decided not to install it since cleating the main on a very light (165#) cat is kind of risky for novices.

Wow! That is neat . wood with a history . . .

Yes indeed, but . . . nails. A metal scanner wand such as used by TSA to wand down airplane passengers would do the trick. OF course various wood working tool sellers offer the same device. They cost a few bucks but so do the saw blades and planer blades that would be trashed.

Yes, doug fir doesn't like to bend. I tried it years ago for stringers on an outboard hydroplane. 5/8" square and it was a bugger to force into the gentle bends needed. Also heavy so I never used it again.

Many moons ago I got "mahogany" from Home Depot they called kaluha or something like that. It had nice color, very light, but ranked slightly above balsa fro hardness and stiffness.

3/16" ??? I think you mean 3mm Okoume. That comes in around 9 lbs a sheet. 3/16" is 5mm and hard to locate and around 20 lbs a sheet. I don't think glass on both sides will save weight, and since the wood is thin it won't form a very strong composite structure. I'd stick with outside glass for ding resistance, forget seam on outside since you will glass it. Now if you want light, cedar strip. My 9' l. x 4' w. cedar strip dink weighed in at 50 lbs with 6 oz glass both sides and doubled on the bottom.

Your build is going well and looks very nice. Heat well release an epoxied in screw. I heat screwdriver shaft with a propane torch, set tip in screw, wait for about 10-15 seconds, apply torque. Same for pulling wire stitches on S&G builds except I use a mini-propane torch = Bic lighter. Drywall screws are my fav for temp clamping and knocking together jigs and molds. My theory is with duct tape, drywall screws, and zip ties one has near every conceivable repair covered. Caution: The underside of a drywall screw head is "trumpet" shaped and has been known to split a chine batten. Some wood species seem more prone to splitting than others, but I haven't kept notes on that. The washer head screws with a cutter tip sound ideal.

I do small boats up to 16' but for a larger craft I would enlist helpers to do the glass wetting to get it done in one furious epoxy fest. Or as Scott suggested, do one side then the other. The pour and distribute with a squeegee method is quite fast. I like a roller on more vertical surfaces, but for anything sort of flat, as in flat enough the epoxy doesn't sprint away from the pour and head for the floor, the squeegee is the plan. You may spend more time mixing batches of epoxy than spreading it.

Here you go . . . http://www.westsystem.com/ss/ Go to "how to use" and "user guide". User guides are available via download under "how to guides" under "products". Also available as a download, "The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction" which is often refereed to as the "Bible".

Rule #1 for coating and/or laminating fiberglass on your boat = begin work when ambient temperature is falling, as in the evening. Yes, I know that rule, and have been building boats for decades, but temptation got to me. Air temps are wild this year - days in the 40s and then days in the 70s. And my shift work schedule is kind of wild, so the other day I have to be at work at 11, the glass is draped on the kayak strip deck, and it will be the last warm day for a week! Hot dang! So around 8 I mix the goo and get to work. Oh yeah, a bit of out gassing, so I police bubbles. About 10:30, the resin is now pasty sticky, I go around and police a few remaining out gas bubbles - off to work. Shortly after 6 I arrive home - garage door grinds up and I go WHAT! Blisters all over the deck. Multiple factors contributed to this mini-disaster: I violated Rule #1. I left for work so I wasn't around to continue bubble policing. To shave a few pounds I used a 3 1/4 oz tight flat woven cloth that only had little pin pricks of open space between the threads and that apparently sealed the air under the cloth causing it to raise a blister. The 4 oz I have used has a more open weave and air goes through it. On the upside, the resin formed a meniscus at the edge of the blister so a few swipes with a carbide scraper and the raised part of the cloth fluttered away. A few more swipes feathered the edge, ready for patching. So today I patch. Then scrape the patches, add a coat of resin, sand, etc etc . . . What a PITA . . . Next time the plan will be, stoke up on coffee when I get home from and hit it while the temp is falling.

Thanks, nz lance. I expect the second Diva to be a few pounds lighter, but the weight kudo goes to the Designer Graham who claims about 40 lbs for the Diva. I love your build, but everytime I look at the pics I have to mop the drool off my computer keyboard . . .

Douglas Fir? I think maple is for furniture, not boats. For serious boat frames I believe doug fir and southern yellow pine are good - time for the wood experts to chime in and correct or verify my guess. I use cypress myself, but then about 16' is my cutoff build point - small garage :-(

Southern Yellow Pine = SYP

Glass on hull and underside of strip deck for Diva #125. Several folks have talked about using a roller to spread goo on glass cloth, and I gave it a shot. My usual dump and squeegee method works well on semi-flat surfaces but I had been slopping goo with a brush on vertical surfaces = very messy. So today I broke out my foam roller to do the sides of the kayak. Cool. Roll on goo, let is soak for a spell, hit it with squeegee, touch up up a few dry spots with roller, squeegee, done. Next time I may do the whole deal with a roller - seemed to use less goo and it was faster.

Love to, but this is the only kayak I have paddled. Today, with mid 70's temp and sun in the sky, my Daughter took it out for the third time, and she has paddled rent-a-kayaks before. She declared the rudder nicely sensitive, just touch the pedal and kayak goes where you want it to. Her plan is to get up with the local paddle club for camp paddles this summer. Plenty of gear storage room under the hatches.

The Sealect rudder is not the lightest available, but reasonably priced and slick. You can adjust the rudder pedals for different leg length without fussing with the cables. I ran the uphaul line under deck to a turn around - small fairlead - and secure it in a clam cleat = easy. With the stainless goudgen I figure maybe 4 lbs total added. Diva #123 came out at 44 lbs with 4 oz fiberglass on the hull and glass on both sides of the strip deck.

You need to find a good batten. I have used 1/2" CPVC pipe but now I use thin strips of cypress and/or white ash left over from various table saw adventures while ripping chines and sheer strips. I also use a handful of awla. I loft the "points" and then whack awls in place to bend the batten around and then draw the curve AKA cut line. Make sure you match each side by sanding or trimming with a plane to get matched pairs = very important on a stitch & glue rig.

I used a Sea-Lect TruCourse rudder from Duckworks and also the SeaLect rudder pedals. http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/canoe-kayak/sd748300/index.htm For Diva #123 I used a rudder goudgen from duckworks, but on Diva #125 I did the end pour deal as per Graham's plan. See link for my non-drill method . . . http://messing-about.com/forums/topic/8408-cast-drill/ Yes, I found the rudder nice when the wind picked up. And real nice downwind when the kayak wanted to tail walk off course.

Thanks. I'm on Diva #2 and will try a retractable skeg on this one. I believe either a rudder or skeg is nice to have to enhance tracking while going downwind.

Lemme see - built numerous model airplane wings with foam, hot wire cut to airfoil desired, sheathed with thin balsa or thinner plywood (comes in 1/64"). Very strong structure, used beadboard. Also built a outboard hydroplane, 9' 6" long. I hot wire cut the hull airfoil shape, skinned the bottom with 3mm ply, skinned the deck with 6 oz fiberglass. Foam was 2 lb/cu ft beadboard. Ran a 15 c.i. Hot Rod on it, speed 65 mph plus. Only problem I had, dang boat came out so light (65 lb)I had to add lead to reach the required class weight, boat, engine, driver, of 350 lb. Later I used some foam/wood skin/glass skin parts of my race boats but remanded the main hull structure to wood. Yes, picking the right foam (higher density as previously mentioned) can save weight but not $$$. Sheathing foam in glass eats up many epoxy $$$.

My routine for decks, and other panels that have a semi-hidden side, is coat the interior (or on a redwood strip deck glass it) then when thatbcoat is kicked but green, roll on coat #2 . . . hustle over to deckless boat and squirt on thickened glue, and then install deck with slimy side down. You get primary bond and coated interior.

Yes. I notice the big box stores now list actual measure, like 1/4" is 7/32" and 1/2" is 15/32". Many moons ago the Harbor Sales folks said the extra length on Brunzeel, Joubert, etc was for scarfing, as in you could scarf two sheets end to end and wouldn't come up an inch or so short because of the scarf.

Tehani/Charlie is absolutely right on the plywood. A nice, but pricey, sheet of Joubert Okume sweeps around those curves. I usually work with thin stuff like 4mm and even the cheaper (Chinese?) 4mm okume gives me grief when attempting to bend it. I use that for flat parts like bulkheads.