Skip to main content

Pygmy Borealis deck seams sanded and ready for fiberglassing

I've started writing a "Rogue Supplementary" manual for Pygmy kayak builders. The idea is that it is filled with as many Pygmy kayak building tips as possible. So far it's up to 30 pages! More on this supplementary manual later.

--------------------

Tonight I sanded the excess epoxy off of the deck panels and lightly rounded over the seams. There are still a few blotches of epoxy here and there but they will completely disappear under the fiberglass.

Overall I think it looks great! The next step is to fiberglass the deck. We have guests coming into town so it may be a week or so before I can return to it. Stay tuned though!

Custom Pygmy Borealis kayak build

You can see a close-up of the seams below. It looks very clean and should make a really nice, clean line when the fiberglass is put down on top. The little blotches of epoxy will go completely invisible and leave just the beautiful wood and a clean seam line.

You can also start to see the benefit of taping the hull instead of stitching and gluing it. There aren't hundreds of tiny holes! 







Aloha!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Annapolis Wherry Spacered Inwales Installed

For the past week (yes, WEEK!) I have been working on the outwales and spacered inwales. The inwales and outwales are such an obvious part of the boat that you really want them to look as good as you can possibly make them. And doing that takes a lot of time and patience.  The spacered inwale kit is an addition to the basic wherry kit. The kit includes the OUTwales, but does not come with INwales. We like the look of the spacered inwales and find that they have some function too for securing things to the hull. They look nautical.    The spacered inwale kit comes with inwale rails, sticks you cut to make the spacers, a replacement breasthook for the bow, and replacement quarter knees for the transom.  They leave it up to you for how long to cut the spacers and how far apart to space them. The manual that comes with the kit is extensive.  I like the look of rounded spaces. No, it's not the normal look of spacers which are supposed to simulate the ribs on a wooden...

The Rogue Manual

I've posted about this earlier, but thought it might be good to post it again for anyone who may be interested. I've started to write a manual of tips and tricks for Pygmy solo kayak builders. It covers the taping method, so that your boat doesn't have hundreds of holes all over it. I'm on version 2 now. Version 2 covers several other tips and tricks from myself and from others as collected over time. ATTENTION : Use the manual at your own risk! The only person responsible for any mistakes or problems with the building of your boat is you. Always use the official Pygmy manual that came with your kit. Only do those tips and tricks that make sense to you. If something in the manual doesn't sound right to you, then don't do it! Neither I, nor Pygmy Boats, nor anyone else except YOU is responsible for the safety of your boat and the quality of your build. It's in very rough draft form right now, but if you'd like to read it, please send a $10 donat...

Outwales, Inwales, and Dyed Seats on Annapolis Wherry

For the past few days I have been tinkering on the outwales, spacered inwales, and the seats/thwarts.  At the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival this year, I saw another Annapolis Wherry that had a lovely bow treatment along the outwales at the bow. Instead of ending the outwales near the bow, this builder brought the inwales all the way around the bow. I'm trying to do the same thing, although I think that other builder is a better woodworker than I am, based on how it looks so far!  I used screws to temporarily hold the assembly in place while the epoxy cures. They have now been removed.  The assembly is made up of cutoffs from the inwales and outwales. I screwed up on one side but luckily had enough cutoffs to make another one. The center accent strip is Alaskan yellow cedar. It will look a lot better once it has been shaped. I'll do that after all the inwales and outwales have been installed.  I've also now epoxied on the first two outwales, one on port and one o...