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Deck epoxied onto the Borealis XL

Tonight I finally glued the deck onto my Pygmy Borealis XL kayak.

Started by adding a second layer of epoxy where my feet will go. This is a really nice trick from the Pygmy manual. The rough weave of the cloth doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal on your heels, but after being in the boat for a while it really starts to hurt. So adding a layer or two to fill the weave just in the foot area works really well.

Just lay down some masking tape and then roll on the epoxy. I actually did two fill coats as the first one wasn't enough. I also put blue tape around the foot brace studs so that when I run the fiberglass tape and epoxy down the hull/deck joint later on I won't get epoxy on the threads.

Pygmy kayak building tips.

Taping the deck on is no different than any of the other taping steps we've done, and when it's cured we will have a complete boat with ZERO tiny drill holes! And we will have saved ourselves a lot of pain and blood from that horrid wire.

I put the deck back on and spent about an hour carefully taping it down. You may have to use a lot of pins to hold portions of the deck or hull in or out to align the two together. Then you'll also need to run a lot of tape to keep it aligned.

Pygmy kayak building tips.




You can see from the pictures that I used a LOT of tape. Most of one roll. I just hope that they all hold long enough for the epoxy to cure!


Fingers crossed!


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