After a quick test fit, I wasn't very happy with the side panels.  One of them seems to have been out of shape. 

Since I wanted to re-cut the deck (so I'd have it as two pieces rather than 4), I had some extra plywood.

I used the better of the two side panels as a pattern for the second.  I wish I had done this in the first place.

After cutting the second one a little large, I clamped the two together.  Then I used a router with a pattern cutting bit to trim the larger one.


The pattern cutting bit works great, now the panels are both exactly the same.

Okay, there was one problem with using the router.  It was quite hard to control on the narrow ends, resulting in a couple of chunks.

The good news is that this part will be painted, so I'll fill it with epoxy later on.

I picked up some finer copper wire because the stainless steel was too hard to work with.

Here you can see the difference between the two. 

You can also see the lineman's pliers that I picked up at Lee Valley.  These have a channel for holding the wire ends that makes twisting the stitches nice and neat.

 I used the forms I made earlier to test fit the side panels.  I stitched the ends and then used spring clamps to hold the sides to the form.

Now its time for the assembly.  I put the bottom onto the form and added the sides back

Next I wired in the bulkheads.

The forms aren't part of the plans, but they were really useful.

Working on the boat in the upright position allowed easy access while wiring in the bulk heads and the bottom.

As you can see, the bottom had a bit of a gap, but that can be fixed with a bit of epoxy later on.

The "duct tape" form that was used on the Odd Duck will work well here.

Once the wires were in, and the duck tape form was in place, I removed the forms and flipped the boat over.

One of the great suggestions from Kayaks You Can Build is to use masking tape to keep the glue from making a mess.  This means MUCH less sanding later on.

I used some thickened epoxy pushed between the stitches. A disposable spatula worked well and the tape allowed me to make the joints fairly smooth.

Before the epoxy  kicked, I removed the tape.  The result is a nice, neat joint.

Once the epoxy hardened (the next day), I removed the wire stitching.

I then filled in the gaps and holes with more thickened epoxy.  Again the tape helped keep the job clean.

Now that the hull is glued on the outside, it was time to make an epoxy fillet for the inside.

More tape to keep from making a mess (as seen in the Odd Duck).  This time there is a small gap between the tape lines that will hold the fillet.

The stem and stern will also receive a fillet, so I taped them up as well.

Here you can see the glued fillet before I removed the tape.

Tongue  depressors worked remarkably well to form the fillet.

Here the tape has been removed.  As you can see, the tape method has really made the job smooth and tidy.

The next step is to strengthen the joints with fiberglass tape.  I started by cutting the tape to size and test fitting it before I mixed up the epoxy.

Here I have applied some un-thickened epoxy onto the tape. 


The weights are there because I had a couple of bubbles in the tape.  I put some wax paper over it and added the weights to press out the air.

Cheap acid brushes (for plumbing) work well to apply the epoxy to the tape.

A disposable squeegee worked well to remove excess epoxy (rather than having to sand it off later on).  

Another tip from "Kayaks You Can Build" is to put a slit in a paper cup and use it to remove the epoxy from the squeegee.  The cup is from the unofficial sponsor of the project.  

Now sanding.  Much sanding....


The idea is to get the edges of the tape feathered into the plywood as smoothly as possible.

The next step is to add a thin coating of epoxy to the outside of the hull.  This was done with a cheap foam mini roller and un-thickened epoxy.

To keep the hull off the table, I clamped the forms to either end and laid down wax paper.

Here I have started the sanding after the epoxy coat. 

You can see how the thickened epoxy added earlier has filled in the router mistakes and gaps between the panels