The Art of Building A Stitch-&-Glue Sea Kayak

Paddlers have different reasons for building a touring kayak. The puritan may long for a wooden boat that reminds her of the wilderness; the romantic is attracted to the idea of "giving birth" to a vessel; the pragmatist may cite a kit kayak's light weight and economy. Each reason is legitimate--in my case, the motivation involved a combination of the above.

Perhaps the easiest way to create a kayak is to purchase a pre-fabricated, stitch-and-glue kayak kit. This involves forming the kayak's shape by joining together, with wire and glue, a series of plywood panels which are then encapsulated in a lamination of resin-saturated fiberglass cloth. After the hull is assembled and laminated, builders can add water-tight hatches, bulkheads, rigging and rudder systems to customize the craft. Building your own kayak can save you up to 50 percent over the cost of a typical fiberglass boat, and helps forge a personal relationship with the craft that is unmatched by any retail experience.

I selected a pre-fabricated kit from Pygmy Boats (I had tried Pygmy's boats before and enjoyed the wooden kayak's beauty and lightness)--an Osprey Standard, a 38-lb., 15'8" honey-colored mahogany boat--and placed my order. Within two weeks, three boxes were delivered to my front porch. After opening them and flipping through the manuals, my brother, a friend and I realized we had a small problem-we needed a working space. We retired to the house for a strategy session, assisted by a few pints of Guinness ale. Not a wood-working hobbyist, I also lacked sawhorses, plywood and some necessary tools like a chalkline, hot-glue gun, clamps, rasp and power drill. After convincing my wife--with my brother's endorsement--that I needed the items, I headed to the hardware store and spent $150 to buy them. To build one of these kits, make sure you have adequate room to work, along with some additional items not mentioned in the manuals. Because you will be working with epoxy resin, keep your workspace no cooler than 55 degrees F. You also need a work table, at least four feet wide and one foot longer than the kayak. In a bind, a flat floor space of similar dimensions will do, but the table makes it easier to work at eye level. Pygmy's Osprey Standard was comprised of thin, 4-mm sheets of marine grade mahogany ply-a beautiful, full-grained hardwood. Pygmy claims its computer-designed and laser-cut panels are accurate to within .004 of an inch, and a quick glance at the trim lines on the wooden panels made me a believer. Pygmy also claims the average enthusiast can build an Osprey Standard in 50 to 75 hours--not including time for curing the fiberglass resins. After reading the construction manual and polishing off our second pint of ale, we returned to the garage to begin the kayak.

By the end of our first afternoon, we had joined the 24 half-sized boards at their central joints to create the 12 full-length panels that would comprise the kayak. Joined by a butt-joint of epoxy and fiberglass tape, the panels were ready to be temporarily wired together into the kayak's hull. We retired to enjoy a few more pints of Guinness and some conversation of our first day's accomplishments. After that, my companions left me to fend for my own.

Two evenings later, after the fiberglass butt-joints had safely cured, I drilled a series of 1/16-inch holes along the edges of each panel to place temporary stitches of wire to hold the panels flush for gluing. After installing temporary frame spacers to help with panel placement, I started wiring the upper mahogany panels together to form the two basic segments--a hull section and an upper deck. This step went remarkably fast--especially since I spent a fair amount of time sanding the butt joints together beforehand to ensure an optimum fit.

Working with epoxy resin can be finicky. Tentative builders should familiarize themselves with resin prior to building their kit, particularly if building the kayak in an unheated workspace. Although they are included with the kit, purchase an additional box of rubber gloves and some plastic cups and spoons to help mix the resin. A small glass jar will facilitate storage of acetone necessary to clean the epoxy brush.

After all the panels were wired, I ran a syringe filled with wood-flour thickened epoxy resin between the panels to fasten them together. After the mixture cured along the seams for a day, I sanded all the joints, making the external surface look as smooth as possible before the final stage of fiberglass sheathing. This sanding determines how seamless the final joints appear and is important in reducing the kayak's weight. To control the depth of my sanding (don't sand too deeply into the laminate of the mahogany), I used an electric palm sander, which allowed me to focus on removing only the surface resin accumulation and not cut into the actual fiberglass.

A day later and the lower section started to look like an open-decked canoe, while the upper panels which formed the deck presented the character a true sea-going kayak. I placed the two segments together temporarily on the work table and finally felt as if I was actually building a kayak. From later conversations with kit designer John Lockwood, I learned this was a common threshold, and when the builder's sentimental connection with the craft develops.

The timing could not have been better, since that was also when my neighbors started taking interest, venturing over whenever the garage doors were open. I must have impressed some of them (especially those whom I had previously borrowed tools from), since it now appeared that I possessed some level of craftsmanship. Redeeming your neighborhood reputation as a worthy handyman is a nice fringe benefit of building your own boat.

Days later, with 32 building hours into the project, my kayak was ready for its final interior coat of fiberglass cloth. Removing the temporary frames from inside the hull, I checked for consistency along the interior seams. Along some points on the keel seam I found that my handling of the resin left an occasional gap, which could translate into air bubbles once the cloth was laid down. Sanding these gaps smooth, I refilled the seams and let the resin cure overnight. This review step is important to make the seams as sound as possible.

My procedure was to return to the project after dinner each evening, spending two to four hours per day on the project. My pace was not hurried, and I concluded the work could easily occur on a casual evening or weekend basis--provided the steps requiring multiple coats of fiberglass are done within three days of each other. At this point I was about halfway through the project. A few days later, when I determined the seams were cured, I saturated the inside of the hull with resin using a foam roller. Placing fiberglass cloth on top of the resin in the bow and stern, I kept the fabric flush in each recessed panel joint area--any air bubbles trapped along these seams would create areas of potential weakness. The amount of resin used determines the kayak's final weight, so make sure the resin is properly mixed and thinly applied. Warming the resin in front of a bulb or furnace keeps the mixture pliable. After the inside of the hull was glassed, I placed a small wedge of cardboard at the bow and stern, into which I poured a small amount of resin. This triangular wedge would be drilled through from the outside of the kayak to facilitate toggles.

I was now at 40 hours of building time. The next evening I fastened the deck of the kayak permanently to the hull, preparing to cover the deck with its final layer of fiberglass. Taping the deck into place, I used the syringe to drop a thin line of resin into the seam between the hull and deck, spreading the resin thinly. After allowing the seams to cure overnight, I sanded the resin to round out the seam. I covered the deck with a thin layer of resin and draped over the last layer of fiberglass, covering the fabric with another thin layer of resin. After a few minutes, the fully saturated fiberglass cloth became clear, emphasizing the grain and color of the mahogany panels. I then retreated from the project for a few days to allow the resin to cure.

Kit Kayak Sources Pygmy Boats P.O. Box 1529 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-6143 pygmyboats.com Chesapeake Light Craft 1805 George Ave. Annapolis, MD 21401 (410) 267-0137 kayaks@clcinc.com www.clcboats.com

So far I had spent 16 days--involving 55 work-hours--on the project. I continued reinforcing the seams between the deck and the hull with resin, working inside the hull through the cockpit. Using a headlamp to see inside the darkened hull, I stripped a piece of fiberglass tape across the seam on both sides, strengthening the deck area. Finally, I fastened the combing onto the cockpit rim, sealing the pre-cut inner combing rim with epoxy and draping on a final layer of fiberglass to smooth the cockpit's outer rim. My final steps were to sand the rough spots, reapply a thin coating of resin if necessary and attach a pair of wooden hip braces, deck rigging, seat and foot pedals.

Pygmy outfits its kits with a Therm-a-Rest Sport Seat joined to the floor with two Velcro patches. I fastened a plastic back band against the hip braces, gluing a piece of foam over the plastic. You can also add water-tight hatches and bulkheads for day trips and expeditions. I ordered my boat with an additional hatch kit, which required drawing out and cutting oval hatch openings (which would also become the hatch covers) out of the bow and stern decks. After fiberglassing the inside of the hatch covers, I glued a pre-cut lip spacer below the hatch opening and fastened the triple hatch retention straps on either side of the opening. At this stage, I faced the psychological barrier of defiling the intact deck to cut out the hatch openings, but finally I convinced myself that, even after the hatch was cut, the grain lines of the mahogany would remain intact.

Next I placed pre-cut bulkheads inside and fiberglassed them into position. My stitch-and-glue kayak was now ready to use (although Pygmy recommends letting the kayak cure for a month before you varnish the boat).With the task now completed, I felt enriched as a paddler. Just the prospect of paddling a hand-built craft has heightened my experience and enhanced my anticipation of the upcoming paddling season, when I plan to take it to the San Juan Islands for its maiden voyage. Who knows, maybe even the whales will take notice!

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--Author Kent Ford, a former C-1 World Champion and former Director of Instruction for the Nantahala Outdoor Center, is host and writer for several instructional canoe and kayak videos including "Drill Time!" and "The Solo Playboating Workbook." Find more tips at www.performancevideo.com.