North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse. Video 8 of 12.
In this video we cut and prep the rib stock. Originally I created a somewhat complicated formula to determine the rib lengths to match the drawing, but after ribbing the kayaks I realized that the compensations had overshot the mark and the deck had settled into a shape that made them unnecessary. The tendency of a frame to change shape throughout the build is one of the more frustrating things about building replica kayaks. Even with careful planning and attention to detail things can change in unexpected ways requiring you to back up and start over. The new rib measuring system turned out to be a simple measurement past the width of the kayak at each location. Ironically this was the first thing I experimented with but until the frames settled I couldn’t make it work and still match the drawing.
The other challenging thing about these ribs is that they are much thicker in the middle than the ends and the thinning ends somewhat abruptly to define the shape of the hull. Each one had to be painstakingly thinned to put the bend in exactly the right spot. It was a lot of work compared to the kayaks I typically build where rib prep AND bending takes less than 3 hours.
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