Building Notes | Cape Falcon Kayak

Day 17, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 17, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time 3 hrs. In the 3 days I’ve been varnishing Jared is almost halfway done with a new pair of pack canoes. This clearly shows just how much strings, foils, spars, and a gaggle of shiny bits add cost and time to a build. By the time I’m done...

Day 16, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 16, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 2 hrs. My level of varnishing experience is clearly visible and that is not a compliment. Ran out of Rapid Clear much faster than expected and switched over to an old can of Z-spar. Luckily I have a few more coats and plenty of sandpaper to get things...

Day 15, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 15, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 1 hr. Started the long, toxic, expensive, annoying process of varnishing all the bits. Generally speaking I’m fanatically anti-brightwork for all the reasons I just listed, and on anything but a row/sailboat I just slap a few coats of pine tar/tung oil mix on whatever needs it and...

Day 14, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 14, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 5 hrs. Started the day with the boat on the sidewalk and stuffed rolled up beach towels under the sides to get it firmly level. Dropped in the mast step and clamped on the partners and raised the mast. I always leave the two feet above the partners...

Day 13, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 13, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 4 hrs Hauled the boat outside for some backyard row testing. I’m trying to set the mast partners so they will do dual duty as a backrest. It’s tricky because you don’t want to be whacking into them in normal row mode but you do want it to...

Day 12. Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 12, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs. Made the decision to move the seats, and made relatively quick work of modifying the seating and relocating the risers. Center seat shifted 5 inches aft, stern seat 10 inches aft, very close to my original plan. Feet now land on the subsequent thwart, as it should...

Day 11, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 11, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs. Spent the better part of the morning massacring otherwise innocent lumber in my indecisiveness about how I wanted to make the spars. I ultimately decided that Doug Fir was going to be too heavy, (after cutting it) so I took a deep breath and turned an absolutely...

Day 10, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 10, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 8 hrs Well, today was f-ing frustrating. I banged out the floorboards set the risers and removable seats, planning for spars and foils tomorrow and then on target to barely catch a window of weather warm and dry enough to varnish. Then I got in the boat for...

Day 9: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 9, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 4 hrs. It always seems like the finished hull should be more than half the battle but whenever you get strings and sails and metal bits and oars involved, it’s actually only about 1/3rd of the overall cost and work. Even if you’re a hard core minimalist like...

Day 8: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 8, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 3 hrs. Pleased to see the dip in my keel disappeared overnight. Boat has settled at about 43 inches wide which works for me. Put the goop on today. There’s lots of things you can coat a skin boat with but I’ve never found anything even half as...

Day 7: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 7, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 4 hrs. Put a skin on the boat today, pretty uneventful, fast and easy. I’ve decided not to build any permanent crossmembers into the canoe for now. I think I’m going to set it up with the same system that I use for the pack canoes so I...

Day 6: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 6, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs. Started the day by removing the spreaders and then playing with the shape of the frame by adjusting the width. 44 inches was as far as I could go before it started making unsettling noises. At that width it was 13 inches deep which looks nice. I...

Day 5: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 5, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs. Spent the morning making new stems and briefly reconsidered changing my whole stringer strategy and even cut a fair amount of wood before coming to my senses. In the afternoon Liz and I worked together tying on stringers which took about three hours to finish the whole...

Day 4: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 4, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7 hrs. 15’6 x 40.5”x 15” Late last night I realized that my canoe formula probably still works at this size, I just hadn’t scaled the central ratio up quite far enough. So today I gave it another go with fresh oak and a new base number, and...

Day 3: Skin-on-frame rower-sailer

January 2019September 2022Leave a comment

Day 3, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs. Decided to back up and rework the boat today. A little narrower a little shallower. 40.5/15 It looks nicer and now I can get all of the ribs out of an 8 foot plank, with the shortest ribs being just below the length of the falloff for...