Cold Temperature Epoxy

The trouble with winter boat building is it gets cold at night, just as we are ready to glue!

My solution is some bent water pipe, a sheet of polythene and some tube heaters (not to mention every cramp in the workshop).

Here the cockpit surround, or at least the base of it (formed by 32 strips of ash) is finally shaped to the compound curves of the kayak deck. The hatch frame is also complete.

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.

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.

Hurley 2470 Sailing

Somewhere between sailing on an Oyster 55 this summer (see Artic Circle Sailing) and my recent addition of a home built sailing canoe, there sits my trusty Hurley 2470. Here's a flavour in photos of 'Concord' sailing. With a home port of Milford Haven on the Pembrokeshire coast this provides some excellent sailing opportunities and normally a trip once a year across the Irish Sea to the Emerald Isle.

Autumn, first light

Waterford, Ireland

Too cold for sailing!

The Irish ferry needs to be dodged several times a day

One of many favourite and unspoilt anchorages

Docks by night

The Smalls lighthouse

Rigging the new multi purpose genoa

Annual maintenance is very much part of the deal with boats (stripping the antifouling back to the gel coat ready for applying 'gelshield' took for ever last winter).

Some work gets a lot more interesting than scraping the hull, here I rope my Father into making some new wash boards and a sliding hatch for Concord.

Very smart and well sub contracted out on this occasion.

Over the fourteen years which I have owned my Hurley, a large proportion of the fittings have been replaced. This has included fitting a new engine, completely re-wiring the boat, some structural strengthening under the mast, replacing rigging. All jobs which have provided me with some good experience, the odd headache and an empty wallet (even though I complete all maintenance and improvement work myself).

For me a big part of the sailing is the access to the wildlife which it provides. Inquisitive seals always like to check out the boat. Also puffins appear fairly relaxed in our company.

A cliff walk from an anchorage always presents some photo opportunities.

A telephoto lens ensures that others are viewed but left undisturbed in their natural surroundings.