That's Wayne's hand in the picture. Wayne was helping out with both kayaks, the urban Aleut and the urban Alutiiq.
Here's Andrew demonstrating rib shape. A short piece of aluminum rod gives the flat center profile while the bilges stay round.
Andrew used some cable ties to hold the hull stringers to the ribs but also did some lashing with artificial sinew.
Here's a picture of the bow which we cut from plywood. The paper template is laying on the ground.
The cockpit rim was plastic as well. Here Andrew is pretend bending it with his teeth the way that people used to do with wood in the days when they lacked materials to make steam boxes.
The hull is stained the traditional red and Andrew is just putting on some finishing touches.
Last day. We almost finished the sewing except around the cockpit.
And a side view to show off the nose.
Looks like the head of an eagle, doesn't it?
And one final shot of Andrew in the dining hall of the APIA building.
6 comments:
beautiful! thanks for sharing
Where can I learn more about the plastic ribs and the method of their installation. I am curious about materials, where to get them etc.
Ted
Dear anonymous,
If you live in the US, you can get the plastic pipe at home supply stores. The plastic is called PEX. Put that into your favorite search engine and you will come up with lots of links.
We used 1/2 inch tubing, cut it to length and set it into 1/2 inch deep by 1/2 inch dia mortises in the gunwales. The center flat section is created by shoving some 1/4 inch aluminum rod into the plastic tubing. You will have to experiment with how long to cut the rods. You can also use 1/4 inch wooden dowels but these tend to break more easily.
And if you want to go full-tilt non-wood skin on frame kayak, check out George Dyson's book, Baidarka. Hints there about how to bend aluminum tubing.
Aluminum tubing by the way would be lighter and better than aluminum rod for hull stringers, but rod is what we could get. Worked well enough.
I have built a skin on Frame baidarka and used your book, Robert Morris' book, and some videos from the Internet from the school off the coast of washington as reference. I found your book the most useful, as basically relied on it.
The finished product taught me just how difficult and subtle the shape of the hull can be. I found that my boat was very unstable. I have since cut the skin off, and replaced some of the 5/8" stringers with 1-1/2" stringers in an attempt to change the profile of the hull. Although it had some effect, it wasn't dramatic enough. I have decided that the ribs are too round in the middle. My plan is to cut the skin, replace the ribs, and reassemble.
If I already have 1/4" x 3/4" mortises, i guess I should stick with the same size wood stock and steam it like before. The PEX ribs seem interesting though.
Ted
Hmm you know very nice art of making boat that is interesting and you have good nature of sharing with other people your practical skills.
I know this but yet now i have never used it.
I am planning to go beach in coming month.
thanks for sharing.
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