kayaky NOPES mehbes, and oh-sh!t-yeahs

First up, NO, I am not letting the world at large slow me up in my personal endeavors, and neither should you.   I may get the depressions, blahs and what not, but I am not going to stop being ME, just because there are evil shits loose in the world that aim to make us serfs, slaves or DEAD.  

and with that little rant out of the way, onward to the point of this post in general.  

been doing the experimentin’ things, and was quite pleased with one in particular, nut just this morning, figured out that its a damned NOPE!!!

What that experiment entailed was trying to find a different material combination to make this kayak skin out of.   Materials in question, Ballistic nylon (known unit) Polypropylene cloth (unknown), combined with Two part Polyurethane,(well known) and polystyrene resin (known unknown) and combinations there-of.   Ballistic nylon and Polystyrene, rocking for coamings and other hard points, SUCKS for skin.   the resin doesn’t flex like it did early in the experiment process.  It now cracks, and cracks mean leaks.   A leaky boat is not my goal.   the two part is the way to go no matter what cloth I use, and the BN for making the hard points (vs the glass since its TOO fragile in those areas.  The polypropylene works for the skin, but nothing else no matter what I use for the resin.  And I like the polypropylene since I can shrink it with a heat gun and it is NOT hydroscopic like the BN is.   That was my biggest beef of all with Serena: if the humidity was high (or she had been capsized and filled with water) her skin would go all loose and floppy.  Not really an issue performance wise that I noticed, but she looked bad and it would take weeks for her to dry out enough to tighten back up.

Now, the Oh-Sh!t-Yeahs.    Single chines.  With the rocker knocked down to near nil, single chines look awesome on this hull.  What I am doing is a single chine between keel and gunwale, with a false chine at the base of the gunwale( to smooth the lines) that will allow some flex of the skin before it hits rib at the waterlines.  That set, she has a very shallow v at the cockpit area that rides true up to past the feet and well past the cockpit before converging towards the ends.   Very sweet liines that way and better cut into the water without plowing.  With that shallow V, she will have good stability in all waters even if she feels tippy in the calm.   She will feel tippy, but not nearly as much as her former self did.   The former ‘shallow v” was very short, less than 4 feet, and was almost useless with that radical rocker stem to stern.   The ONLY advantage of that rocker was maneuvering, and she was so daggum long, even that was a chore: she didn’t have that spin in place thing going like the Jefe does. (and the Jefe is ALL rocker in ALL directions)

Now the Mehbes:  Still have a couple ribs left over from redoing the original ones.  Ones that I replaced just because of changes in lengths or didn’t like the original bends with the new units installed.   And I think, I am going to use a couple of those ribs combined with fiberglass/resin to make the new deckbeams that need replaced.  I dropped rib seven in place of one of the deckbeams ‘just to get a look-see’ and the profile was encouraging.  Those ribs are well cured white-oak so a layer of glass wrapping them will be even stronger, and lighter than the 3/4” laminated beams I am replacing.    I will have the chines cut tomorrow, the wood is sitting in my rafter right now with the splice curing under clamps.   I should be able to lash it in before dark tomorrow and then, flip the old (new) girl over and start on the deck.  (I have the bow cutwater done, and the stern will be pretty quick too.  Pics of that forthcoming.)

And I am not worried about keeping to pure skin-on-frame materials for the build, nor strictly tied and mortis/tenon construction.   Yes, the keelson and chines are tied in, but that is not because its traditional (it is) but for flexibility of the frame as a whole.  I am not building a traditional Greenland type kayak, I am building MY version of what I have wanted, and what I found works for me.   (thanks Ghostboat for showing me a different path). I know the mortis and tenon build method works, as well as lashing: Duh!kee is still holding together after 3 years, me beating on her in less than optimal conditions, sinking her, capsizing her, and even jumping on her to show others that she is one tough boat.  Yeah, the method is tried and true and proven over centuries of use in bad conditions.   And it’s not like I have been a purist from the get-go anyways.  Using two part poly on synthetic skin, using synthetic sinew to lash the boat together,  Yeah, Not so much a purist as THIS IS BETTER, DO IT!  LOL

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