The Birthing Pangs of PITA the Kayak - Lone Wolfe Photography- powered by SmugMug

In Feb 2002 I purchased an Osprey Standard, a Pygmyboats stitch-and-glue mahogany kayak kit, with the understanding that it would take 70 working hours to construct. It's going on 3 years and it still hasn't been in the water yet. Here are a few pics of the building process. (By the way, its name PITA is an acronym for "Pain In The Ass"...)

Gallery pages: 1 2 >

< 1 of 17 >

Steve Wolfe > In the beginning....As I have no garage my living room became the construction area. Well, at least I have a nice view...The high-grade mahogany planks are laid out on the work table.

Steve Wolfe > Once the 2-piece keel planks are epoxyed together, it's time to stitch them together by drilling holes and inserting wires. Twisting these wires together will bend the planks into the correct shape (hopefully).

Steve Wolfe > Using 3 pre-formed temporary frames, the keel bends into shape when the wire twists attached to the frames are tightened. It's a good feeling to see it assume the shape of something that MAY float...

Steve Wolfe > The hull just prior to filling the seams with epoxy.

Steve Wolfe > Once the epoxy has set, the stitches are removed and --- voila! --- you have a mahogany hull with dozens of tiny holes in it. And the excess epoxy along the seams has to be sanded as flat as possible, otherwise this next step will be fraught with problems...

Steve Wolfe > First a saturation coat of epoxy is rolled on with a paint roller, then the fiberglass cloth is draped over the hull. To conform to the hull's shape you must trim and overlap the cloth. This becomes tricky on the bow and stern.

Steve Wolfe > Roll, Roll, Roll your boat....Rolling the epoxy over the cloth flattens it against the hull. You want it to be COMPLETELY flat so no air pockets will form, but if your keel construction is less than perfect well, now's the time when it will show up.

In the beginning....As I have no garage my living room became the construction area. Well, at least I have a nice view...The high-grade mahogany planks are laid out on the work table.