Development of VARDO *SOF Kayak

[Kudzu]

I started this morning building VARDO and thought it might be to some to see what is involved in the development of a new boat. Obviously the first part was the design of the boat. I will skip that part and just say I have been working on the boat design off and on for a three months.

Once the design was finalized I created a set of offsets for the frames and draw them out on some cardboard. I don't draw out the actual frame, just the the critical points so I can visualize the frames better. This is surprising harder than you think. So it's better to mess up on paper and regardless how careful I am I always do.

I take the cardboard sketches and layout the frames on some cheap plywood. Even after doing this many times it's still slow and so easy to make a mistake. it takes me a while to do this. Much of this is just done by eye and experience as I go.

Once the frames are laid out I usually cut them in smaller pieces and take them to the bandsaw. I can do a much better job with the band saw than the jig saw. So I rough all these out and make the final cuts there.

At the end of the day I have the outsides cut pretty close to size. I will go back and sand these and do some work with the rasp also.  Still a good bit of work to have the outsides finished before they are finished.

Tomorrow I start cutting the insides of the frames.

[Kudzu]

DAY 3

This morning I headed out to check out a new wood supplier I meet at the boat show. I asked if someone was always there and I was told almost always. Well you guessed it, no one was there today.  This really messed me up because I had made the slots in the frames for 3/4 inchs stringers instead of 5/8" since I thought I had found a good supplier (and I may have).

So I went to lumber yard and searched through the WRC siding and managed to find three decent boards, not good ones. By the time I plane down the rough face they end up 5/8" thick. To small for the slots I had cut. I spent a good bit of time thinking about what to do. I finally decided that the only good answer was to glue up the slots and recut them.

I cut some oversized pieces and fitted each one to a slot and glued it in place. Once dry I will recut all the slots and clean them up. Keep in mind this is only patterns, not the actual frames. So the gaps don't hurt anything.

Next step was to make the stringers. I planed the stringers down to 5/8" and ripped them to width.

Then cut the knots out with scarfs cuts. Glued them all up to 18' or longer.

http://kudzucraft.kudzupatch.com/designs/vardo/development/day2-stringers2.jpg[/img]

I am going paddling tomorrow morning so I probably want get anything done. But my next step is to run the stringers through the shaper to round  over the edges.

Then mount the frames on the strong back and start assembling the fuselage.

[Ken_Potts]

Sweet!  Please keep posting pics.  Those nice lines will yield a fun boat.

[Frank Hagan]

Great post!  Keep updating it; I think it will make a great "start to finish" thread that we will really enjoy.

[Kudzu]

OK, will do!

DAY 4

Started out doing some sanding on the pattern frames. I have a couple I messed up and will have to be remade but there good enough for now. And I will almost always find stuff I want to change and I am already seeing some I may change.

Once the frames were done I decided not to run the stringers through the shaper at this time and just work on getting the patterns right.

Once I got a few stringers in place I started working on a new idea, an intermediate frame to support the coaming.

I started with my offsets and cut the outside and did a test fit. And as expected it didn't work out like I had in mind.

I spent a while in the 'moaning chair' and thought this through and decided it was OK after all so I cut out some more and did some measuring with the frame in place.  It took some fiddling but I like what I have. You will have to wait to see the finished product though, it's still in my head.

With the frame finished I took a seat out of a Curlew and put in the boat to see how it would fit.

So far so good. I was actually very surprised at how well everything fit. I see a couple of things that I didn't/couldn't see on the computer but that is always the case. I had an idea that might change the design but I am not sure. But that's where I called it a day.

[Steve Day]

Very nice work.

It's always interesting to make the actual pieces and fit them together. You can see so much more like that than you can on some computer screen.

Keep going, and keep taking pictures.

Steve

[Kudzu]

DAY 4

First order of business was to layout the bow and stern pieces.  Pretty straight forward stuff. Got these made and put them in palace on the boat to 'eye-ball' them and make sure they look good and they do.  But I am not sure I am happy with them. I keep looking the the photo and  thinking I could improve it.

Here is the frame temporarily assembled.  Everything looks good at this point. 

Next step is take everything apart to make the final frames. I had two that changes. So I made the new ones and called it a day.  Next step is run the stinger through the shaper to round over the edges and cut out the new frames and pattern route them.  Then we start assembly.  I need to settle on a what skin I want on this one.

[Kudzu]

DAY 5

Spent a few minutes cleaning up the edges of the patterns first thing. Then I laid them on out of the good ply and started cutting out the final frames.  Once that was done I attach the patterns to the blanks and headed to the router and cut them to  size. Here they are routed and ready to be separated from the patterns.

After that I take the time to set up the router with a round over bit and ease the edges of the frames. Doesn't really do much but it makes them look much better. No one but me ever see's most of them though.

Next I need to finish up the stringers. I clean up the scarf joints before I run them though the shaper. Once that is done I like to round over the edges of the stringer. It makes a smoother looking boat and since I routed the frames I don't  have to square up the corners.

With 18-19' foot long stringers it takes a lot of space to run these. I am so glad it is warm enough to still open the shop door!

Once all that was done the day was pretty much gone.  OK, there was time left, just wasn't much of me left. I was pooped!  But I did press on for another hour or so.  I wanted to mount the frames to the strong back before I quit. Then I called it a day!

[Kudzu]

Day 6

Not that much to see but I did get a good bit done.  I have all the frames in place and ready to be lashed.  I  have the bow and stern pieces cut to shape. I will wait till the all the frames are lashed and then I I make the final cuts and fit them in place.

I lashed a few joints but I spent a large part of the afternoon shooting a new lashing video.

Not much to see but it's starting to look like kayak frame.

[Kudzu]

DAY 8

Well, lets start with another mistake. (Yes, I make lots of them!) I had the frame assembled and was working on the bow stem and something just didn't look like right. I keep looking down the stringer and they just were not looking like I expected they would. So I went back to the computer and checked the model. Nope, that is now what my boat looks like.

After a lot of looking and messing around I finally decided I had made a mistake lofting one of the frames. Of course it was the frame I had mounted to the strong back!!  I lashed up to that point so I could take the frame out and it not fly apart on me.

Once I got it out and measured it and I was right, I was wrong. 

With that done I was able to replace the frame with no drama, exploding stringer and as if by magic, everything lined up looked  like it was supposed too.

Most of the last two days have been spent lashing the frames together. One of my goals after the last frame was to skip the epoxy and lash everything.  I was gluing the stingers in place instead, but this frame will 100% lashed.  I should finish the assembly of the frame tomorrow.

[Ken_Potts]

I've accidently gotten behind on your updates but I just had the very great pleasure of seeing several at once  8)

I love the process of hanging long curvy pieces of wood in space and making sure things look right - I think skin-on-frame construction provides more of that kind of fun than any other type.  It's great to see the curves go from the computer to real pieces of wood.

[Kudzu]

Day 9

Have not worked on the boat much the past few days. I bought some new computer tools (toys) and been busy with those. I have my CAD software and just got my plotter.  I have been drawing all the frames for VARDO as practice.

I have them drawn full size and wanted to try out the plotter. So I printed a big sheet with all the frames on it. I took it to the shop and laid my patterns over the sheet to compare them. That is sort of humbling.   I was a draftsman for years and years and I thought I was pretty darn good at lofting. But lets say I see room for improvement.

On one frame the keel slot was slightly off center so I decided to remake it and try one of my full size patterns.

First step was to rough cut the frame out and glue it to the plywood. 

I think just cut to the line and was pleasantly surprised. Beat the heck out of pattern routing! Quicker and much less messy.

I took it to the drum sander and sanded it to the line in a few places and it was done. Removed the old one and replaced it with the new. Then removed it from the strongback.

[Ken_Potts]

That's so cool that you can untie one frame and tie another one on.  :cool:

As one Draftsman to another - Have you checked the aspect ratio on the new plotter yet?  When I do a full-size pattern on unfamiliar equipment I'll throw some registration lines on the pattern in the x and y axes so I can make sure the plotter is plotting what I think it is.

[Ken_Potts]

Okay, so I just quit thinking about drafting and looked at the pictures again - Very pretty!

[Kudzu]

As one Draftsman to another - Have you checked the aspect ratio on the new plotter yet? 

Sort of.  I dimensioned some part of the frame and scaled them with a yo-yo. Now that I sort of have the hang of printing with it I need to put a couple marks in there and check it closer with a good scale.  It's probably not a bad idea to put a couple on each sheet just so I can double check from time to time.

[Ken_Potts]

  If you have them on there you can also verify that old prints haven't changed size over time due to humidity.

  Once you check it you'll probably find that the plotter is as close as you can measure but it's nice to know.

[Kudzu]

DAY 10

Finally received the skin for VARDO so I have been back in the shop. I was thinking I had left it ready to skin. But I quickly realized I still had some thing I needed to do. I needed to install the foot rests and I had to lash a couple of places that I could not do while it was on the strongback. And I needed to oil the frame. I don't know why I had done all this while waiting on the skin?

I spent the day working on the frame prepping it for skinning. I got the foot rests installed but I am having second thoughts. Once I flipped the frame over and looked at it I think my mounts place it too high in this boat. I am going to have to take them out and come up with a new way to mount them lower.

[Kudzu]

VARDO * Day 11

This morning I started the skinning process. I am using a 7 oz nylon fabric. The first step was to drape the fabric over the upside down frame and center it.

Once the skin is center over the frame I stitch a pocket around the bow of the boat. You have to be careful the way the fabric lays on the boat so you make sure you can stretch the fabric properly and end up with wrinkles.

I then move to the other end, I mark the end of the boat on the skin. I go back to the bow and unhook the pocket I have just sewn from the boat. On the stern I move forward from my mark about 2 1/2

[Ken_Potts]

Very cool!  Was stretching the fabric scary (waiting for the heartbreaking cracking sound) or have you built enough of these to be confident?

Did you end up lowering the foot rests?

[Kudzu]

Was stretching the fabric scary (waiting for the heartbreaking cracking sound) or have you built enough of these to be confident?

Did you end up lowering the foot rests?

I have built a few and I don't worry. Even if I did crack a frame it wouldn't take but a hour to replace it. Since they are lashed in place it's not a problem. Biggest issue is getting comfortable. I hate to put it on the floor because I always get the skin dirty but it sure is easier to do on the floor.

As for the footrests, I put the frame on the floor and sat in it. Realized the footrest are perfect, they just look high.  I think my gunwales are just a little lower than I thought.  A long legged big footed person might just touch the skin with his toes.  I suspect that once this is complete and on the water I will end up raising the shear line before I release the plans.

I hate a boat that you hit your knuckles or bang the paddle on the deck so I like the keep the guwale low at the cockpit. I thought I had raised this one up so it would have more volume but I may not have raised it as much I wanted.