Skin on frame kayak building is surprisingly easy with one big exception: threading the deck lines.
I start with thick English bridle leather straps, stretching and rounding them by pulling them through successively smaller holes until the smallest hole takes my full body weight to pull the line through.
Next I burn holes in the skin that are both smaller than the leather AND offset from the hole in the gunwale to minimize leaks. From there it’s just a trial of muttering and cursing as I try to pull lines that won’t be pulled and tie knots that can’t be tied, generally smashing the crap out of my hands and elbows in the process. I apologize to everyone who takes my building course for this hateful ordeal.
Leather straps look nice on a traditional kayak but that’s not why I use them. In my experience, a good treated leather lasts longer than rope in a marine environment. It’s strong like a rope but also slightly elastic and slightly tacky, which holds gear firmly on deck in a way that bungee just doesn’t. I strongly believe you should be able to rescue, tow, and carry a loaded boat by any line on a kayak.
Traditional toggle tightening systems just increase this utility and let you customize your rigging for how you plan to use it. I usually use HDPE for toggles but this kayak I used up a scrap of Delrin I had sitting around. Originally, these would have been made from ivory and (rarely) bone. I left off a few of the traditional toggles that I haven’t found to be useful, but took even more care to reproduce the original shape of some of the others. It was immediately clear to me that this bow toggle shape has some big advantages that I hadn’t thought of before.
I decided to put 1/8” inch thick Delrin rub strips on this particular kayak as opposed to the HDPE I usually use. This has the potential advantage of a much tougher material with a lower profile to keep the ends a little looser in the water. Due to its lack of UV resistance and relative brittleness, however, it may not actually outperform HDPE in terms of lifespan.
Skeg install went well, I’ll do a separate post on that.
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