Sunday ‘Git-r-dun’! apologies for late post

Been busier than I could express on this end. Between the domestic duties thing, laundry, straighten up after a four day weekend of running hells-bells all over SE-KY, and ‘Oh yeah, there’s a kayak frame on my porch’ realizations,,,,

While doing the laundry, I cleaned up those parts I cut out on Wednesday, drilled alignment holes and ran both through a belt sander to get the edges lined up to perfect match. (yeah, redneck machining trick 101). Later on, Dad and I went to my Uncles place for lie-swapping and cowboy coffee (that shit WILL make you hair stand on end!!!). He has a 48” Bench Brake and I was able to get a perfect bend in those two parts as needed. Pics will be posted, just not today since I haven’t the band width to upload those files here on the hill.

Get home, loaded my side porch with a couple loads of Cherrywood that has been seasoning for about three years. My dad is trying to clear out his wood shed of the dead weight to clear space for all of this pin-oak he picked up the past couple of weeks. No worries, I have no issues taking what he doesn’t want. Makes what i have in my shed last that much longer and the way this year has started; every little bit is gonna be needed IMO. And I kept tripping over that kayak frame on the main porch,,,, Load up an armload of wood stack it, go in for something, and start noodling on the kayak, “oh yeah, I gotta finish putting wood up”. Back to loading wood, noodle with the kayak, load wood, re-think what I was gonna do on the kayak, clean the stove out and start a new fire, sharpen my chisel so I can get clean cuts on the kayak,,,

You get the picture. Some days I multi-task pretty well, and not even realize it. Sitting here, I look at all the stuff that I did get accomplished and swear to you I didn’t even TRY,,,

She is almost ready for skin. Setting up the deck stringers and that will be done shortly since I only need 4 small spacer blocks to finish that off. and she will be ready for skin.(but not today, the sun is gone and its getting colder than I care for out there.)

Kinda.

Still don’t have that coaming finished yet.

Still looking for a donor’Yak for a cockpit I can use as a mold, and if I don’t see one soon, I am gonna break down and buy some marine grade plywood and go that route. Skin is here and waiting on me, Dope is on its way and will likely be here before I am ready for it (but thats a plus.). LOL, funny how I ‘compromised’ and said I wasn’t going to cut that skin off until I had a coaming DONE, and here I am almost ready for new skin and still don’ t have that coaming. Yah, I can be obstinate even with myself.

One thing I did that wasn’t ‘constructive’ was taking her off the cradles, putting her on the floor and sitting in her. I wanted to finalize where my feet will be so I could set up the footpegs/sliding bulkhead (leaning towards a bulkhead setup) She is gonna be a torpedo. No rocker until you get past my ass and then it is very slight, maybe 2”. She is gonna cut the water like a knife with very little wake. The chisel point bow is going to slice waves instead of trying to climb them so she will be fast even in choppy water. and there is just enough v-hull that edging should make her maneuverable without needing a rudder. The shape is definitely ‘Swede form’ at the waterline so no need for a rudder to control tracking.(that may be partially true, Wind may indicate need of a skeg or rudder, but until I have her out I won’t know if she is weather helmed or neutral, No/near zero rocker, she may be neutral in that aspect).

Numbers that I can say for certain right now. Length 16’2” Beam 23”. Loaded waterline 15’10” Beam @WL 20”. Not as long as a surfski, but no wider than one, She won’t be much of a river-runner, but open water; she is gonna be a Barracuda. Search for ‘barracuda attack’ on UToob and see what I mean. And I THINK she will be much more stable than Duh!kee is. More near flat hull where Duh!k has a sharp V almost her whole length. The only time Duh!k feels stable to me is when the water is trying to stand up, and I don’t get out in storm waters often enough to need that “Bobber” attitude.

Working on a post for the AM, gonna have several links for ya: HIGHLY recommend you follow them, forward them to others and try to spread messages. Kind of a “Make these Viral” bleg. Look for that tomorrow. Don’t want to put anything in this post on those lines for ‘reasons’, you understand when you see them.

More tomorrow, stay tuned for that.