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Duct Tape Kayak – Build Day 3

Posted by on July 12, 2012

Today’s build focused on the stern section of our PVC frame. This section came together much more smoothly after all of the head scratching and figuring that we had already done for the bow. For the most part, we decided that the bow and stern sections should be fairly symmetric with the exception that the stern would incorporate an integrated skeg to make up for the moderate rocker displayed in the rest of the hull and assist with tracking.

With the stern section complete we were excited to dry-fit the three sections together and behold the monster that we created. As it turns out we had indeed “unleashed-the-beast”! Overall, the frame is slightly over 19ft long and about 17.5ft of waterline. The maximum beam is 23inches and the beam at the 4inch waterline is about 19inches. I’d tell you how much it weighs but we’re keeping this information top secrete so that we can use it as a “guess how many beans are in the jar”-type of fundraiser at our upcoming unveil!

We had a heck of a time adjusting the hull since all of the fittings were dry-fit together. It seemed like every time we moved one piece another piece would pop out down the line. This made us realize that the glue stage (our next big hurdle) will be rather tricky. On the one hand, we’ll need to take our time to make sure that everything is right. On the other hand, the PVC glue has something like a 30 second cure time so precision will be the key to our success! Also, the dry-fit frame seemed fairly floppy but we hope that the glue will stiffen it up quite a bit by taking the play out of the joints.

Check back next week to see how we do with the glue!

-Kayak Dave

Click here to donate to the Kayak Dave’s Duct Tape Kayak team and help support Stand Up 2 Cancer!

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