Hacking Yak II

[bubblehide]

Originally Posted by Lets_Fish

Viewing this with interest as to what the kayak will look like once completed!

An observation on my part I'm having a hard time seeing how the bottom of the hull will be smooth (like the original hull). How are you intending to "blend" the glass to the bottom of the hull? I understand that you will be glassing the inside, but what about the bottom outside, won't it leave a ridge around the "box"? I see this as being one of the larges hurdles of the project.

Actually the part you see as the largest hurdle, is not that difficult at all. In the pictures above, you can see that I started to grind the gel coat, which I will also do on the bottom side, so that I am glassing directly to the original yaks fiberglass/composite, and obtain a solid full strength bond, (as little as a one inch overlap or less will produce a full strength bond). I will simply taper the layers, use the 1/32 cut fiber, and/or use micro balloons I have to taper areas, and sand smooth. Some parts will be getting gel coated, while some will be a clear coated exposed carbon-kevlar finish. I'll continue to take and post pictures so you get the basic step by step process.

The difficult part is working within the limited space available within the inside of the hull, to get a solid bond along all the seams, with no air pockets. Then there is the the rudder control and assembly, which would be so much easier to do in a normal production process where the yak is in two pieces (the top half and the bottom half). Since this is my first attempt at this, I don't have every detail figured out; but enough to continue to move forward. and in a worse case scenario, bubble gum and bailing wire will do the trick . Right now, I just need a window of good weather to continue.