The Birthing Pangs of PITA the Kayak - Page 2 - 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"...)

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Steve Wolfe > Let's not forget the deck planks...These are also stitched together and an epoxy saturation coat rolled on both sides. The deck is on the work table and the tape on the hull is for experimentation of the fit of the deck on the hull.

Steve Wolfe > After applying a saturation coat to the inside of the hull, the deck is now taped in place and held fast with some help from wire twists. After this pic was taken I tightened the deck twists so this gap at the bow disappeared.

Steve Wolfe > Everything may look ok but there's a slight "bulge" in the hull back aft on the port side; the deck just doesn't want to lie flush with it. I added a few extra twists to force it to line up so the cured epoxy would hold it fast. Then the deck and keel seams are filled with epoxy and left to cure for a few days.

Steve Wolfe > Now THIS was the tough part. You not only have to fill the long keel seams with epoxy on the outside --- you have to fill them on the inside, too. As the kayak is now enclosed you must rig together a long stick with a syringe filled with epoxy at the end , lay the kayak on its side, crawl in as far as you can go, and lay down a bead of epoxy on the inside keel seams. It's hit-or-miss at the ends of the boat as you can barely see, and it gets mighty hot in there wearing goggles and respirator, but I'm pretty sure I was successful. I'll find out on my maiden voyage!

Steve Wolfe > The kayak as it is so far in a more sea-worthy position...

Steve Wolfe > Now it's time to fiberglass the deck. The cloth is laid out and smoothed down to remove the wrinkles. The cloth is in 2 parts and meets at the cockpit area, but in my case there was a patch of bare mahogany showing so I had to make a cloth patch to cover it up. It will allegedly disappear during the final sanding so you can't tell it's there. So on with the epoxy rolling, squeegee the excess, then 2 fill coats...

Steve Wolfe > After trimming the deck fiberglass and allowing it time to cure, it's the cockpit coaming's turn. This is what holds the spray skirt in place, creating a more-or-less watertight seal so your kayak doesn't get swamped. Here the upper cockpit coaming is glued with thickened epoxy to the bottom coaming; the "C" clamps are holding it in place.

Steve Wolfe > After installing the seat and foot bracings, it's time to sand down all that epoxy that was so laboriously put on. I'm using a random orbital sander but you must be careful as you don't want to sand so much off that you cut into the fiberglass weave. It's a tricky business...It's now January 24, 2005.

Let's not forget the deck planks...These are also stitched together and an epoxy saturation coat rolled on both sides. The deck is on the work table and the tape on the hull is for experimentation of the fit of the deck on the hull.