Category Archives: Building Shad

A day by day account of biding Shad. A Greenland inspired kayak

Launching day finally!

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I finally got to take SHAD out and I love it! After just a couple of minutes I found myself paddling, concentrating on my photography instead of the boat. It was like putting on an old pair of slippers, You don’t think about them, you just put them on and go about your business and that is exactly what I did.

I found SHAD a little smaller than most of my boats. I straddle the boat in the water, park my butt in the seat and then pull in one foot then the other. Because it is a little lower volume I could still do this but I had to lean back a little to get my leg in. It rubbed against the frame under coaming. I could get in without risk of getting stuck, it was just lower and that makes it a little tighter to get in. That was a surprise but that was the only one. I found it comfortable, easy to turn and tracks really well.

I was expecting really hard tracking but a little lean and it started to turn slowly. A lean and a little paddle stroke and it would go where ever I wanted.Just really impressed. This may become my other go-to boat. I still Long Shot better, but she is a close second.

Here is some photos from the paddle.BTW, at the end of the paddle I took several of her on the water and shore….. but I forgot to check the lens and there were big water drops that ruined the photos. So I will have to take some more. Gives me an excuse to go paddling again. 🙂

Kudzu Craft nuclear green

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I got my green! Well not exactly but this is pretty close. A tad yellower than I had in mind but it is as close as I can get. After all searching I found this at of all places my local Ace Hardware. The paint stores couldn’t mix it but the hardware store can? Really? Well if the quality of the paint is there, they have my business.

Anyway, check it out. It’s not finished but it’s close. Look at those lines, even if I do say so that is a good-looking boat. Now if it just paddles as good as it looks.

Now, with these you can see why I call it Nuclear Green, I think it may glow in the dark! 🙂 Anxious to get the rigging  on the boat, that will help by breaking up all that green. So stayed tuned!

Shad part II – stitching it up

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Frame is finished and now it has the lines I was looking for.  Now just to finish it and spend some time in the water with it.

Here it the obligatory FrOG (Frame On Grass) photo. You know if you build one you have to post the FrOG photo! 🙂  You can see this is lower profile boat. It’s not small by Greenland standards but it is a pretty low profile boat, but still should have plenty of room inside.

The last roll of polyester I received had a lot of creases and some dirt along the edges of the first few feet. Even though the creases will come out and dirt stains would be cut off I wouldn’t sell it to anyone so I cut off a long piece and saved if for this project.

Here I am sewing the bow end on the boat.

After about an hours work I have one end of the boat sewn. I have been working on my technique and I have no pull holes so far. I realized that I was sewing the skin on too tight and that is why I still get a few pull holes. This time I sewed it on a little looser and not a single pull hole! Keep that in mind when sewing yours. It’s going to make finishing easier and it will look better too.

The finished bow. I had to quit for the day at this point.  I expect to finish sewing and shrink the skin tomorrow. I like to think I will start painting but I amt setting the goal a little high I think.

Shad part II

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With the hand tool cabinet finished I started to strip Shad naked.  Once I had the skin off and started looking over the frame I discovered some other issues with the frame. None serious but all put together this would have not been a good paddling boat.

Once I put the strong back on the stands I noticed it had developed a twist in it. No way can you build a good boat on a bad foundation and that is exactly what your strong back is. A foundation.  I decided it was time to try another style strong back I had been thinking about for a while now. But more on that in another post.

I cut the lashings at the bow and stern ends and removed the frames I suspected. I starting with the bow, with the gunwales loose I played around a bit and I could see I was onto something.  I recut the frames, installed them on the boat and clamped the gunwales in place . The curve I wanted was there!

Here it is lashed in place. If you look close at this photo and compare it to the previous ones you will see a very big difference in the sheer line. The Gunwales are not forced into shape either, so there should be no tendency for the boat to deform once it comes off the strong back.

While not lashed in place you can see the sweep the stern if you look at the gunwale. A big improvement over the first attempt. Not as dramatic as the bow but still very much a Greenland look.

I am tired and I am busy with work so it will be a couple of days before I get this one finished but I am hoping to skin it over the weekend. I found my green paint I think, so this time around maybe I will get what I really wanted!

 

Day 12 Finished (for now)

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Still not had a chance to go the water but I wanted to wrap this up and show you the finished boat.  This is going to be rather long post, but I have a bit of surprise to tell you about.

All the rigging is done, the back band installed. Nothing left to do. I kept track of the hours and I was very surprised that I came in just under 60 hours.  That doesn’t include the coaming though. There is probably 6-8 hours in a coaming, but those hours are spread over several days work.

This photo (below) is Shad sitting on the scales! I was surprised by this. 31 pounds on the nose.

Now for some photos of the rigging. I like to keep this simple. I don’t carry much with me so I don’t need much on the deck.  I did realize when I was taking these that I don’t have a forward loop to stow a paddle  under so I will need to make a change for that.

Now, for the surprise.  As I said from the beginning, this is a prototype boat. Building prototypes give me a chance to find any problems and make any changes before I release the plans. This boat has some problems and I have decided to change it  so it is not going to water any time soon.

If you look really close notice how the curve of the sheer line changes. Up to the arrow it has a nice up-sweeping angle and just about the arrow it starts to flatten out. Look at this image and you will see how it is supposed to look

The sheer should curve upwards all the way to the ends. Instead, it starts to flatten out on both ends of the boat. I had problems putting the frame together but I convinced myself it was OK. I had to force the boat into shape and thought it  would look fine once it was skinned. Well it didn’t and the boat has started to ‘hog’ a little. Meaning the ends are lower than the middle, just a little but it doesn’t look like the drawing and I am certain it is not going to paddle like I want either. I don’t have to go to the water to test it, I know I am not going to like it.

I read about people pre-bending the stringers before assembling to prevent this problem. Seems to be an issue certain boats from another designer.  I have never had faith in this method, it just asking for the boat to distort because wood will often try go back to its original shape.

I have been looking at a way to solve this for a while now. I have been toying with an idea and this boat has shown me I was on the right track and I know why it did what it did. BEst of all I know how to fix it.

The fix will require ripping the skin off the boat and replacing some of the existing frames But that is why I will not release a new design without building it first. I want to find any problems and fix them now.  You don’t want to build a bad boat and I don’t want a reputation for designing bad boats.

So Shad is finished but Shad is going to be taken apart too. I may wait till after Christmas but I will document it all till she is on the water and I am happy with it.

Jeff

 

 

 

Day 11

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You have to love the fact that you can build a boat from start to finish in two weeks just taking your time!  I don’t have the hours in front of me but I before I wrap this up I will give you the total time.

As you can see I finished up the cream on top. All that is left it put a little black on the coaming and the fabric inside the coaming so it looks better and add the deck rigging.  I had to order the perimeter line. I didn’t have enough on hand. Tomorrow afternoon I will make the fittings and install them along with the bungee and backband. When the cord comes in I will just have to tie it on the boat.  It will still  be ready for the water Saturday without the lines.

This photo makes the hull look really funny but it has a deeper V shape than it appears  here.

Day 10

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Today was one of those days. I got an education in paint and still have a lot more I want to learn. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I wanted the hull was  painted black and for course it is easy to find black paint.  I flipped the boat over on a set of saw horses, grabbed my HVLP spray gun and started spraying.

No real problems but I hate black and wonder why I use it every time! Always hard not to have some flaws in it. It shows EVERY flaw.

I also picked out a green yesterday when I picked up the black paint, but once I saw it on the fabric I hated it. I wanted a bright green, something like this and what I had was not even close. So I headed back  to the paint store, actually two paint stores because I did not like the answer I got from the first one. I got educated on paint.

Usually I use an oil based porch and deck enamel. It’s reasonably priced and you can buy it at most any home building supply and of course it works well on the boats. If I want a special color they mix it for.

This time it seems I chose a color that people don’t use on their houses. 🙂 No one could mix anything anywhere close to this color. Even if they could they said it would probably fade out really quick. The problem is the base color paint they start with. I can’t explain it but I did grasp what they were saying and that they just couldn’t get to where I wanted with house paints.

Both places suggested I go to the automotive paint supply and they could mix any color I wanted.  But I don’t much about automotive paints and they are expensive too!  Before I walked in I wanted to educate myself a little bit about what it available. For now I wanted to stick to something I knew. Time to pick another color but what? I already had the black on the bottom.

To keep this short I picked up a quart of Hunter Green and I  knew I had two more quarts in the shop. I painted some scraps, placed them on the boat and stared at them for while. None of them impressed me honestly, but I had to make a choice.

I narrowed it down the Hunter Green and the Almond. I decided to use the green, at least it was green as I had planned. But I kept going back and forth…… I couldn’t make up my mind.

The almond won out.

It doesn’t look that good in the photo but I am impressed and almost glad I couldn’t get my green I wanted.  I expect to get two coats on tomorrow and then I can take the tape off and see what it really looks like. If all goes well, should launch it this weekend.

 

Day 9

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Started this morning sewing in the coaming. Pretty simple job but you have to be careful trimming the fabric. To short and there is nothing to sew, to long and the edge will show under the coaming. I almost trimmed it to short in one place but it turned out OK.Next I started doing the whip stitch down the rear deck before I shrank the skin. I typically do this afterwards and I must admit the results have me concerned!  The more I sewed the worse it looked. This photo exaggerates it but it did look bad!

I stopped sewing and grabbed the iron and started shrinking to see what I had. As you can see it started to look much better.

So I moved on to the deck. Finished everything up an d it’s ready to start putting on the color in the morning. It will take most of the week to get the painting done since I am going to two tone it. So stay tuned!