Flat Deck Rock Garden F1 Kayak Build, post 2: building the deck.
Check out the first post in this series for the design details on this project.
Finally got moving on the build today. Because this kayak is getting covered with a heavy skin I’m using the best possible wood to increase the strength of the frame to match. Western red cedar has huge variation in strength and weight. The darker chocolate colored wood can save up to 2 pounds in a kayak but is significantly weaker. The lighter colored cedar you see here is a lot stronger.
I added two plies of yellow cedar to the curved deck beams for more strength, and made the rest of the flat deck beams out of yellow cedar. This is overkill for the two end beams but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
On this kayak I laminated deck beam number 3 to a 1/4” lower curve than my normal F1 height. The idea here is to pull the deck down a little bit more in the cockpit area so a full size spare Greenland paddle will fit a bit more cleanly on the front deck than it did on the previous version. I’m a bit of a fanatic about always having a full size spare on the front deck.
This slightly lowered deck should also make the boat a bit prettier, although it does bring me very close to the minimum height needed for the knees to bend enough to avoid thigh cramps while paddling. I think I’m still in the good zone here but just barely.
I’m happier with the line of the bow sheer then I was on the previous boat. Subtle curves are tricky so this time I used a batten to get that line and elongated the sheer wedge couple more inches.
Finally put a new blade in my Japanese saw. The Gyokucho S-290 is my absolute favorite for this kind of work.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
