wood kayak selection suggestion-@13'

Yesterday was an enjoyable winter paddle. My wife is a fair weather paddler. She backed off from going with me, so I took the college student next door. She let him use her Vela! (He’s been quite helpful to us with some re-modeling. The young man has impressive diy skills.) He fit her boat like a glove and was a natchural kayaker. He expressed interest in buildng one for himself. As for critria: short (circa 13-ft)…can hold some camping gear…good for poking around in creeks…not worry about hitting rocks…on the narrow side. He has already built a hover craft…so he can handle a challenging design. Any suggestions to pass on to him?

Pygmy Boats
www.pygmyboats.com has two. One is the 13’ multichine osprey the other the 14’ hardchine artic tern.

Poking around in creeks
Suggests perhaps he might consider the CLC Mill Creek 13. A guy in Texas built two, and documented it beautifully (and humorously). If you google “Sawdust Factory” it should turn up quickly. He made some nice modifications.

size?
how big is he? The osprey13 is incredibly efficient and simple,the AT14 is bigger and more maneuverable. There’s about a 40lb difference for the ideal paddler in them.

Winters Tasmanian Sea

– Last Updated: Feb-23-04 2:06 PM EST –

I would suggest a wood strip hull. This one is for 180lbs of people and gear. 13.5 feet. A really nice hull.

http://www.greenval.com/tasman.html

That Displacement number would also include the weight of the boat, so this would be for a petty lightweight paddler. I think you could build this in wood strip to weight 40-45 pounds easily.

shearwaterboats.com widgeon

LeeG…re size
He’s about 150lb. Can the osprey handle that?

At 150lbs.
The Pygmy Tern 14 is great, no finer handling boat IMHO… GH

150lbs
In a word…No. That’s accd. to pygmys catalog “petite adults up to 5’3” AND 120lbs"

I agree
The Artic Tern is a fun little boat.

yep

pygmy boats
The artic tern 14 is a wonderful boat. For durability coat the bottom with graphite/epoxy coating.

Graphite/epoxy coating
That idea seems to generate mixed responses over in www.kayakforum.com



I bought a can of graphite and mixed a couple of test samples to see how slick it feels compared with plain epoxy. Very slick.



But I am concerned about whether I need to sand it smooth. The unsanded surface of the sample I liked best was extremely flat, smooth, and glossy (the other sample had lots of air bubbles on the surface; I probably used too much graphite in it). Did you sand your coat or leave as is? I have this mental image of black dust everywhere.

slippery black stuff
it is very slick,but “durability” might also be construed as resistance to abrasion AND scraping impacts. It would be interesting to actually test the difference between 1/32" of graphite epoxy,1/32" of more epoxy,and 1/16" 4oz s-glass with fill coats, sure the last combo weighs more but at somepoint when you start putting on thicker coats that can abrade away you might as well but some cloth in it. Something tells me that the extra 4oz of s-glass will provide more resistance to scraping impacts that can gouge down into glass and wood than epoxy thickened with anything.

Slippery factor…
I’ve used graphite on three boats, one a catamaran in the 70’s and now two kayaks strictly for the slippery factor and any durability would just be an add plus.

I am very careful with the boats but have taken a few scratches that are easily sanded out…

I wonder if it’s worth the mess of the first sanding… GH

Wet sand it…
That way you don’t breath it and only get everthing wet and black, it’s a mess but worth it IMHO… I sand it down to at least a 400 grit finish and sometimes 600…

I’ve got plans
bought them years ago but never found the time (or place) to build it. it’s a Mill creek 13 foot.



email me if you want them. I paid about $89 as I recall, make me an offer. still in the original box.



Scott