I did not plan on posting again till it was ready to go to the water, but I hit a little snag and decided to go ahead. I think I am at about 98% finished I just have a few details to take care of and I don’t think I will finish today. I hit my head yesterday and I still have a bit of dull  headache, so I am taking it easy and not pushing to get done.  I decided to go ahead with the ‘Big Reveal’ today anyway.

Click on the images to see them full size.

Like it or not, I love the paint job. I have been thinking of this since I did ‘Nemo’, the orange and white Curlew. I played around with colors when I painted Nemo and Nemo was almost painted these colors!

But I wanted to surprise John Redmond who gave me the idea.  John had posted a photo of a Clown fish and said ‘Jeff, why don’t you paint one like this?” Had it not been for that I would have used these colors.

I used toggles and polyester rope instead of bungee. Toggles have the advantage of being able to  slide your paddle under them, spread the toggles apart and they will tighten, wedging your paddle across the boat. With the blade in the water it makes a big difference in the stability of the boat. It dampens the boats movements so it doesn’t roll nearly as fast on you. It is great for wet entries and much faster to deploy than a paddle float since there is nothing to find nor inflate. I put them front and back on this boat since the rear ones would get in the way during a cowboy scramble style of reentry.

I put a singe white bungee right in front of the cockpit so I have a place to put gloves or a hat or something small and I don’t have to fiddle with tightening the toggles. Since I rarely carry anything other than a spare paddle on the deck the  single bungee is perfect for my needs.

I am well pleased the way the stern turned out.  I wrapped it with a brass stemband using  #4 bronze screws to anchor it in place. There is a bead of caulking underneath it to bed it and seal the screw holes.

The bow is my favorite part of the boat. I have always wondered if the Bifid bow wasn’t inspired by the mouth of something the Inuits hunted. Maybe a way to pay tribute to the animal or animals.This style of Bifid always made me think of the Salmons appearance once it changes during the breeding run up the rivers. That is a large part of why I wanted eyes on this boat.

I am not quite finished painting the eye. I need to add some white highlights to it but the black was still wet when I took this photo. It will be tomorrow before it’s dry enough to paint those.

I wrapped the bow with stemband too. I let it run about  30″ down the bottom of the bow.  That should provide a lot of protection to the most abused part of the a skin boat. I never liked the stitching on very front of a Baidarka and that was a large part of my motivation to try this. Using the Heat-N-bond tape with the stem band turned out very well with only some very minor issues. This method would be perfect on a Stonefly or the Tangerine canoe and it would eliminate all the sewing on those two boats.

Now, I just need to tie up a couple of odds and ends and it will be finished. Once I get it on the water, probably next week, I will post launching photos and wrap this up. Thanks for following along!