First Glue

After all the work I have done on the Petrel, today was the first glue to be used. I glued the sheer strips in place. They are the dark colored strips. Then I glued the light colored strips to the water line. You can see how much the bow and stern sweep up as the water line is very straight.

You can see the strips that are clamped to the flat 1X6 boards. They are scarfed together in the middle. Two 8 foot strips scarfed together to make a 16 foot strip. Here I have four 16 foot strips waiting for the glue to dry.

The wood is western red cedar from CLC in Annapolis MD. I got five boards of dark and five boards of light. I sawed them into strips and then my cheep a%# table saw died. The wood cost more than the wood I can get from the lumber yard but it is much better wood. No knots and very good color. I might use a little bit of Zebra wood on the deck pattern. It is very beautiful, very heavy, and very expensive.

I was able to sell some things on e-bay over the weekend so now I can get a better table saw to replace the dead one from China.

The wedge

All the spacer blocks are the same except the one in the middle of the kayak. On this one I made a wedge to force all of the floating forms together.

Now all of the forms are square and parallel to each other. And the spacing between them all is the same 12 inches.

setting the forms

Assembling the forms on the strong back. Click on the photo to enlarge.

The forms are not attached to the strong back. They are free floating. They can slide back and forth on the strong back. The "U" shaped spacer blocks will keep the forms square, parallel, and set at exactly 12 inches apart.

All the forms are floating on the strong back. The bow and stern panels are attached to the strong back with screws. Then the spacer blocks are wedged between all the free floating forms.

It can all be set up or taken apart in a few minutes. That is how this set up differs form the strong back I built for the Guillemot. The Guillemot strong back is built as a unit an can not be taken apart. ( A big mistake on my part ).

Petrel Strong back

I made an external strong back for building kayaks. It's 16 feet long and very stiff. No twist and very straight. It will help me build kayaks very straight and true.

On top is an internal strong back for the Petrel. It is imposable to find a long 2x4 with no bend or twist in it. So I made a 2x4 box from ply wood. It is very stiff and will not bend or twist from the weight of the forms. If your strong back will flex, it makes it tough to build a straight kayak.

This will make my forms and strong back all modular so that I can set it up or take it apart in just a few minutes.