Hatch and Cockpit

The frame is shaped and sanded up using the hatch as the pattern. It will eventually get glued back under the kayak deck, to form a lip to take the hatch and gasket. There is still one more frame to make to strengthen the hatch itself.

The temperature outside has now fallen below freezing, so all gluing operations need local heat to keep the temperature up for the epoxy to set. Little polythene tents help with a couple of tube heaters below.

The hatch frame needs laminating and shaping to the compound curves of the deck. So once again the deck is used as the mould with polythene underneath to prevent the whole lot sticking to the deck.

So far there are 36 pieces of Ash in the cockpit surround. This has been laminated up in 3mm Ash.

The surrounds are now being shaped up one at a time with a roiling bevel required around the inside. Eventually they will be glued to the deck and more layers of Ash added to the top to form a lip for the spray deck skirt.

Cockpit and Hatch

The cockpit shape is carefully marked out over the deck in exactly the right position (I hope!)


A jigsaw has made light work of forming the two holes

The cockpit frame is being laminated in 3mm Ash. The first three layers here involve eighteen pieces and as many cramps as possible. We had cut this dead Ash tree down years ago from a neighbouring field. Kayaks were probably not in mind at the time but it's ideal for this job and bends well around the hull shape.