North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse video 11 of 12.
After a day spent shaping the ends of the keel we started lashing on the keel and stringers. You can’t see it here but the keel is lashed on in a unique way where it is drilled at each rib and a running lashing wraps through the hole, around the rib, and then back to the next rib. It’s a bit of an odd arrangement with the running portion bridging between the ribs on top of them in the interior which leaves it vulnerable to abrasion. Similarly the stringers are tied on with a zigzag pattern where the lashing wraps the rib and then moves at a diagonal across the bottom of the stringer and around the next rib. It’s probably the least secure lashing I’ve used on a skin boat and we had to pull very hard just to keep them in place. I think these seeming inadequacies weren’t an actual problem in the real world though because kayaks were reskinned frequently making it easy to do repairs. Also the composite effect of such a complicated skeleton leaves plenty of redundancy even if a portion is damaged. .
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
