Susan and I had bought 2 13 foot plastic boats and after a season on the water I was looking at longer boats. Many of the ones I saw were nice, but very expensive (even the used ones) and not all fit me well. An old friends' husband had built a wooden kayak and I saw pictures of it online. I thought "I can do that!"
I started doing the research and settled on the Shearwater 17 hybrid from Chesapeake Light Craft. It is a hybrid in that the hull is plywood assembled with "stitch and glue" technique, but the deck is cedar strips which gives you a chance for creativity. And a chance to test your woodworking skills.
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| Here I have glued the hull panels to length. They come in sections with a very clever puzzle joint that makes assembly easy. |
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| I have glued the shear clamp to the side panels. This is a strip of wood that the deck will be glued to. |
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| On the left you can see the copper wires holding the panel together. |
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| The bottom panels are unfolded, bulkheads are wired in and it starts to take shape. |
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| Side panels wired in. |
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| With thickened epoxy and a syringe the panels are glued together between the wires. When the epoxy sets all the wires are removed. |
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| The cockpit gets a full layer of fiberglass cloth. The bow and stern compartments get fiberglass tape on the seams. This cuts down the weight in an area which will not be seen. |
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| The outside of the hull is sanded. |
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| Fiberglass cloth is wetted out with epoxy and becomes clear. |
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| Here my nephew Chris thinks I actually know what I am doing....got him fooled |
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| Installing deck strips |
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| The deck is removed from the forms and fiberglassed on the underside. An extra layer is added behind the cockpit for strength. |
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| It fits! |
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| Gluing the deck to the hull |
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| Fiberglassing the deck. |
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| Cutting the hatches |
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| Gluing the cockpit coaming to the deck. |
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| Fiberglassing the coaming and adding a little warmth to speed up the process. |
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| It sees the light of day for the first time! Here I am pouring some thickened epoxy in the ends of the boat for strength and for a area to drill for the grab handles. |
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| Hanging from the ceiling so I could varnish the whole boat at once. This turned out not to be a great idea as the boat swayed too much and the light underneath wasn't good....I did a lot of sanding. |
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| Bungie hold downs installed. |
