Internal Glass Sheathing

The two halves now fully sheathed in glass

The resin is added and once again the cedar shows through the glass.

The glass cloth gets laid out along the inside of the hull and deck.

Cleaning up the inside of the kayak ready for sheathing.

Separating the deck from the hull became something of a problem for several hours, as some epoxy had found its way down from the deck to glue the two halves together too soon!

Once separated, the glue from joining the strip planking together must be removed.

Glassing the Deck

Deck Sheathing

The deck has finally got completed and glassed today. The decorative stripes have been formed with some yellow pine and by selecting some particularly dark strips of the cedar.


Hopefully not too many runs and I just hope we can get the deck back off the hull once dry for completing the inside.

A glass shroud stretched across the deck and ready for the resin to dissolve the binding layer and turn the glass transparent once again, as if by magic!

Bear Mountain Kayak

Time for another boat build!



On and off through the summer we have been working on building a 16'6" Resolute strip plank kayak from the Bear Mountain design catalogue.



'Swift' my home built sailing canoe also on this blog, was made using a completely different construction technique (lapstrake, epoxy clinker). So this strip planking in western red cedar and some yellow pine, sanded smooth and then sheathed in glass and epoxy is all new to us.





Cutting the rebate for the final outer plank is a fairly demanding job to get a good looking result. So far so good.

A scaffold frame around the kayak allows temporary timbers and wedges to hold each plank in place while the glue dries (without messing the deck up with staple holes).

The hull is finally turned over to start forming the deck around the moulds, which for now are still left within the hull.

The glass sheathing seemed to go OK and provides a hard wearing but clear finish over the timber. It will gain even more strength once the hull is glassed on the inside.

Once sanded smooth, everything needs to be clean before glassing the hull.

The planks go on, one by one around the station moulds.

The stems are laminated up in oak and held in position with the rest of the mould structure.

Each mould is cut to the exact shape and carefully set out in exactly the right position on the strongback. A mistake here will end up with a strange looking (and poor performing) kayak, so it's worth taking some time and care over this stage.