Epoxying the inside of the CLC Expedition Wherry will take a much longer time than the outside did.  The inside is done in sections instead of the entire hull at one go. It's easier to do it in smaller sections like that, but is more tedious and time consuming.  CLC also wants you to run beads of thickened epoxy along all the hull seams and bulkhead seams. I am not sure why they want you to run seams along the hull panels, especially in the middle of the boat where the panels and much closer to flat to each other. That type of seam will have virtually no appreciable strength. I'm only running beads along both sides of the bulkheads, and along the panels at the bow and stern but only along the keel. Otherwise I'll leave it to the very strong holding power of the fiberglass cloth on both the inside and outside.    For fiberglassing the inside, CLC suggests that you cut a specific sized rectangle for each of the inside bays. There are different measurements...

I'm doing a few things out of order according to how the CLC manual says to do them. The manual has you fiberglass the inside of the hull first, but I glassed the keel tape the other day, and now I've glassed the outside of the hull.  For the first-time builder, epoxying the outside of the hull is MUCH easier than the inside and you'll learn a ton about how epoxy handles and such. That will set you up much better for success epoxying the inside later. I don't know why CLC has you do the hardest bit first... weird.  CLC has gone with 6 oz. cloth for this boat. That is heavier than the 4 oz. cloth that goes on most Pygmy kayaks and should make for a very strong hull. It's heavy though.   The cloth lays nicely and you can easily make it conform to the hull shape around the bow by gently, with both hands, spreading and smoothing the cloth downward. Gently pulling on the excess around the bow helps too. You'll be surprised by how much it will conform.  Once fully con...

I'm back, and I'm building the Chesapeake Light Craft Expedition Wherry !  I'm still sad that Pygmy Boats has gone away, but this boat from CLC isn't a kayak anyway. It's a beautiful rowing wherry with protected storage and enough stability (they say!) that I can use it in a kayakishy way.  Pictures from the CLC webite (copyright CLC):   The kit was delivered yesterday and today I have epoxied the first panels together.  CLC uses a great "puzzle" joint to align and strengthen the panels. For those of you new to stitch and glue kits, they are generally cut from 4' x 8' plywood panels, so the longest piece they can make is 8'. Therefore, to get panels to the full length of the boat, they make you butt joint pieces together. Pygmy did it with flat butt joints that required you to put fiberglass tape over each side of the joint. CLC does it better with the puzzle joints. They do not require any taping. Nice. Plus, they look sorta cool... at least ...

I've mentioned a few times that I'm writing a supplementary manual for Pygmy kayak builders. It's currently up to 30 pages with lots more to go. About half of it is dedicated to the "strapping tape" method of building a boat and not using wires and holes. The rest is other techniques, tips and tricks that many builders have used over the years. If you want Pygmy kayak building tips and tricks then hopefully this will be the place to go. Here are the first few sample pages: The cover:  The Table of Contents and first few pages: Rogue Supplemental Manual Table of Contents Those are the first eight pages of the thirty page manual. I'm sure it will be larger by the time I'm finished. Let me know if you have ideas of what should be included, or what you think of the manual so far. Thanks! Aloha!