North Alaskan Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 9: After picking up another fat stick of pine, we finally got going for real on the kayak frames. Most of the day was just spent measuring and re-measuring and re-measuring some more, but eventually we did manage to install one deck beam.
Building replicas is such a different experience than building my own kayaks where everything is optimized to make the build easy. (My F1 is a 40 hour build) It’s more like doing design work where your main aim is to try not to back yourself into corners that will require you to start over from the beginning. Even with Harvey’s notes and photos and a book there’s a lot of ambiguity about how this or that piece was shaped exactly. I’m still mildly annoyed that I had to use I graduated measurement for the rib lengths, when a shaped bottom of the gunwale would have given me the hull shape perfectly with a simple rib measuring system, but the lower edge visible in Harvey’s drawing just wouldn’t let me do it.
I’ve brought my friend Tom Moen on for this build. Tom has helped me with some of my most challenging projects over the years and builds all of our custom kayak orders these days. He does nicer work than I do. We think enough alike that we have good working synergy, but not so much so that we don’t see each other’s mistakes.
Today was mostly just a series of conferences about issues of international importance such as whether a certain 1/4 of an inch is within acceptable tolerances, and whether we should increase deck beam thickness by a 1/16th of an inch for added strength. Decisions were made and we are ready to jam in the morning.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
