It seems as though springtime weather has descended upon New England! Do you know what warmer temperatures mean for the Duct Tape Kayak?? That’s right: It’s time to break out the PVC cement and finish up the new frame sections!
Alex and Brett show off the newly-glued bow section
This past weekend Alex, Brett and I were finally able to move our operation outside of the barn and get to work on gluing up the new bow section. We learned a lot about working with PVC cement during our first go around (like not crying over spilt glue) but it took a little while to clear the cobwebs out! For instance, we struggled and strained to open up the glue can before we remembered that we had the same issue last year! It was nothing that the vice and a little duct tape couldn’t fix! One could tell that we were a little smarter this year as we came prepared with rubber gloves and actually took the time to mark the depth and orientation of each piece on the bow section BEFORE we took it all apart!
Alex and Brett work to glue together the new bow section
The bow section was going together like clockwork. That’s about the time when the guys noticed that their gloves were melting! Turns out that whatever the PVC primer is made of was reacting with whatever the gloves are made of and causing them to melt. So much for trying to be clean and safe! However, we were much more cognoscente of the location of the glue can this year and were able to avoid knocking it over on ourselves (cough Brett cough)!
I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world!
What’s fair is fair and I’ll be the first to admit that I was the walking disaster throughout this particular build session! Granted, I was about three days into a five-day-long kidney stone episode (ouch). However, this was no excuse for becoming the victim of “work site injury #2” to add insult to my already sad state of affairs. I had been advised to take it easy and decided to occupy myself with prepping the stern section for glue at the beginning of the session. This involved measuring all of the pieces and marking all of the joints so that the guys could reassemble everything correctly and efficiently when it came time to glue. I was attempting to remove a particularly stubborn pipe (what we affectionately call a “sword-in-the-stone”) when it suddenly let loose and bit me on my left thumb! No big deal but you’d never imagine how irritating a cut in that location can be…
Work site injury #2
Anyway, after I cleaned up my mess, I decided that I was better off just playing cameraman for the rest of the afternoon! Alex and Brett did a great job finishing up the bow section while I was thoroughly distracted taking pictures in the Billington Sea Kayak “junk yard,” playing with Morton, and talking art and kayaks with the owner, Doug. Here is one two of my favorite shots from this shoot:
Gem of the Billington Junkyard
Morton is ready to hit the water this spring! (He’s standing on a winterized sailboat)
T-minus-25 days until the start of the season for the Duct Tape Kayak! There’s a lot of work yet to be done with gluing and stern section, laying down the tape, and figuring out the rudder control system but I’m confident that we’ll have things together before the 11th hour (maybe by the 10th, lol). Stay tuned to see how it all comes together and for our tentative schedule of events which should go up on the site by the end of the week!
-Kayak Dave
Be sure to visit (and like) the KayakDave.com Facebook Page for more pictures of the 2013 Duct Tape Kayak!