Life on the Outer Coast

Finishing and Stiching. "Trollope " just is too confusing a title, but it does describe the level of untidiness achieved by the end of the day (8 something?).

Day Five, although lacking a catchy title, was a rather momentous day. The first part of the day was spent attempting to tidy up the boat before beginning the process of adding the skin. We removed the ends of pegs and sanded areas that we thought would matter. I was also tortured by a block plane. For some reason I thought I had that tool figured out. Very wrong. Brian warned up that most of what we were fussing with was totally useless, he was of course correct, but we wouldn't have believed him. Allowing people to be compulsive about sanding for a set period of time seems like a good way of handling a rather natural urge to fuss over the project. I spent my extra time sanding under the deck beams. Despite the admonishment to not sand the lashings, I managed to destroy one set. It was easily re-done, but I did lose valuable compulsion chasing time.
The process of attaching the skin started with draping the untreated nylon evenly over the keel up boat (looked a little like a shroud). We started the stitiching process at the bow of the kayak. Or was it the stern? The thread of choice was unwaxed dental floss. We used push pins to attach the nylon along the keel and bow stem then Brian cut an opening (kind of slit-like) with a heated fabric cutter. The cut ends were finished by lightly melting them with a propane torch. Starting at where the keel joined the bow stem we over-lapped the cut edges and used a whip stich to join them. The seam continued down the bow until it rounded the bottom and formed a pocket. Next we unhooked the end we had just closed, moved to the stern and repeated the process. Back to the bow, the sewn end was refitted around the bow by bracing the boat with feet against a deck beam (?) and pulling the skin around the end (while laying on one's back on the ground). Brian did mine as a demo, so I'm a little hazy on the details of this maneuver. This seemed to take a variable amount of effort. I think that we used push pins to secure the skin on the keel at this point, then flipped the kayak over to work on the deck side.
Brian did the topside trimming using a batten to mark the center line in the stern and the deck stringer in the bow. Sam finished the edges of the fabric then we whip stiched up the center from stern to cockpit, then from bow to cockpit. This involved alot of pulling to achieve a taut deck. I added a second layer of whip stiching to pull one area in tight. The job was more difficult when the overlap of the fabric was greater. For my kayak the amount of overlap was less in the bow where the central deck stringer also made the job easier. We stopped stiching for the day at this point. Happily most (if not all) of my wood working ineptitude was covered by the nylon skin.
We also put foot pegs in Sam and Jonathon's boat (the rest didn't arrive). Brian did show the three unfortunates that we would be able to put the pegs in with the cockpit in place. This was a much more entertaining process watching Brian that it will be for the three of us. Hopefully, the missing pieces will arrive before Brian leaves next Wednesday.

"Chase the drips and make them work for you"
I suppose the subtitle should be "backdoor burrito"
Started at 7am in order to finish at a decent time. Today we stitched the combing to the skin. The thread used was a heavy black multi-strand nylon. Again alot of pulling was required to get the skin tight. I've rather sore hands tonight. We sewed through the 1/8 inch holes we drilled every two inches through the lower combing around one direction with one thread, then sewed through the holes in the opposite pattern (same direction around the combing).

Next we either applied hot dye/vinegar or hot water/vinegar to shrink the nylon to the frame (the penultimate tightening process). I was the only person who choose to dye the fabric. I wasn't really sure what color I wanted, just a variety of warm brownish red. Brian mixed red a little gold and a little brown, tested it on a scrap. Added more pigment, tested again. It looked good, so I painted it on as fast as possible since the dye absorbs best when hot. The floor, my lab coat and my wrists will probably be red for awhile. The color was a good choice, it was really quite nice when wet. I did get a little worried when it dried, it was a little on the light salmon pink side. The last tightening process was a heat gun shrinking the few spots that needed a little more tightening up before the polyurethane is applied.

The skin took a couple of hours to completely dry so we worked on the paddles. I think I'll relate the paddle saga next installment.
The polyurethane application was rather intense. It's a two part mixture that begins setting up as soon as it's mixed, so there is a certain amount of speed involved. Each of us had a 6 or 7 inch long beveled scraper like thing to spread and smooth the polyurethane. Today we coated the lower part of the kayak (we masked the top of the gunnel with tape). Brian poured an 8oz cup of the mixture along one side of the keel while we chased after him trying to spread the goop out evenly along the surface. We made boat length passes smoothing the drips and sags and trying to keep most of it on the boat not on the floor. We did each side once, then added two more layers of polyurethane several minutes (?) apart. I totally lost track of time, I could worry about was keeping the material smooth and covering every surface. I also had to be careful of not getting the polyurethane too thick since on dyed cloth that results in a hazy surface. Looks like it worked okay as the end result was really beautiful, the color of my boat looked like red mahogany. Hopefully, it will look as nice in the morning.

Also managed to finally come up with a working red cedar spindle and base so that I can practice with the bow drill in between tasks.

About 20 marbled murrelets, several rhinoceros auklets, glaucous winged gulls and a Bonapartes on the way home.