Flat Deck Sailing-Catamaran F1 kayak build. Post 11, outfitting the kayak. Don’t miss the music!
I finally found some time to outfit the new boat with deck lines, backband, seating, thigh braces, camera mount, perimeter lines, drain plug, and rub strips.
With a 12oz skin, frame reinforcements, extra ribs, and a brass bow rub strip, everything about this boat is heavy duty. I would do just about anything but run pourovers in it, and honestly it would take a lot of those to breach the skin. Of course that extra toughness comes at a price, in this case 38 pounds fully rigged as compared to the normal 31. For my personal boats the trade off isn’t worth it, but if for whatever reason you need that strength, this is how it’s done.
My deck rigging is an eclectic mix of bungee, rope, leather, and toggles, each doing a specific job. The back deck rigging is part of the new catamaran system but I like it enough that I think I’m going to switch over to setting up all my own personal boats this way. The leather at the ends and on the front deck has functional advantages though, so that’s not going anywhere.
The bungee line halfway to the bow is another thing that was originally just part of the sailing system but has proven incredibly useful for lots of other things. It’s the perfect place to tuck both paddles during an X rescue.
The suspended fabric seat continues to be surprisingly comfortable for something so simple, and my minimalist thigh braces give me plenty of purchase for rolling but still lets me lift my knees on long passages.
On the last version of this kayak I was having trouble getting my spare Greenland paddle to sit comfortably on the front deck, which is completely unacceptable, so on this version I made a bunch of minor tweaks that all added up to a more functional arrangement.
The rudder I like is on back order so it’s gonna be a while before I get this fully rigged for sail, but at least that means I will get to paddle it before it becomes a 41 pound beast.
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