Wood Strip Kayak - Post 07 - Glassing Deck

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I take inventory of my shop and realize that I actually finished with a few extra strips. Not enough to entice me to start a second build, but enough to be useful scraps around the shop. My early take-off seemed to be surprisingly, luckily accurate. As I mentioned in my last post I took a different approach to glassing the top and it seemed to work great! A thin "wet" coat of resin to the top of the kayak before laying out the fiberglass made for a light and consistent finish.

The bubinga really stands out when wet. The protective resin gives me peace of mind knowing my hard work is now protected.

Once the exterior halves of the kayak had cured it was time to reinforce the inside to complete the composite. I removed the strongback and ribs and set the two halves next to each other. I will be attempting to do two at a time. With the lack of forms to hold the halves in place I created a couple quick spacers that snapped over the parts of the kayak. This will prevent the kayak from shrinking, expanding or just plain warping. This is a good thing since I want to eventually put the pieces back together and I want the alignment to be spot on.

After the inside was cured I took an extra measure to reinforce where I would be sitting and where I would stand to get in and out of the kayak. I probably could have done without this step since I was using 6oz fiberglass overall but after all the time I put into this thing, I' chose to error on the safe side! Three strips of "tape" (3" wide roll of fiberglass) lay across these critical points and receive resin.

The composite is amazingly durable. After fiberglassing one side I noticed a huge increase in rigidity but after the other side was glassed I could just barely cause the shell to deflect and that's with all my weight. Once the halves are together this thing will no doubt be even more solid.


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