Making Cockpit on Cedar Strip Kayak

I am coming up to the deck on my cedar strip kayak and want to take some hints on just how to construct the rim to hold the spray skirt.



Do you bend small strips around and around and glue to form it?



What are some of the best ways?

Look here
You really should be on the kayak building forum - much info on every aspect of wood strip kayak building:



http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi

Also here…
www.oneoceankayaks.com has a great carbon fiber rim that is quite easy to make and very sturdy…plus it looks cool! I have these on two of my strip builts and they work great. Hope that this helps!



Kyle

I used 3mm plywood
But a strip of cedar would do the same thing.





http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/477236240nJEmgt?start=36

Nice!
Nice looking boat!



How thick is your riser? It looks a little thin by the photos.

Ways
I’ve done them by bending wood and by constructing a carbonfiber lip. I think bending wood around the riser is less work. You can see it here: http://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/free-siskiwit-bay-kayak-plans-for-backyard-builders/



The carbonfiber method looks really cool, especially if you add carbonfiber in other areas, like I did on my Iggy: http://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/building-ken-taylor-1959-kayak-the-igdlorssuit-launching/


It’s 3mm plywood
It’s a little bit thicker than 1/8". After the coaming was epoxied and filleted I added a couple layers of fiberglass from the outer deck to up under the coaming and from the inside of the cockpit up and around the top of the coaming. It turned out very strong.

The coaming and lip
You said the " rim" ? I guess you mean the coaming and lip.



Here’s an interesting way with little work.



Once you have the circumference length. Lay down some wax paper on the floor. Then wet out some 9 oz 3 " fiberglass tape - 3 layers with some blackened epoxy. I use graphite to darken it. Offset the layers so the woven edges allow it to lay out flat. The next day it will harden but be like a strip of rubber. You now can bend that around the hatch cut-out and attach it with 5 min epoxy. You can cut off extra below the deck with a utility knife. That piece will harden in days to very hard and you can make a fillet and even another layer of glass that runs from the inside under the deck. etc… For the lip, I use steamed oak strips in a sandwich. The black riser with the wood lip looks great. And it’s easy.

Brilliant
Jay, that’s brilliant. On my next kayak, I’m going to try it.