"CHOOSE" a kayak..??..why heck..BUILD A KAYAK..!!..

This post was "inspired" by Mooch's post asking how many kayak's you've had.

I have been a kayaker since 1972........WAY......before SOT kayaks were ever thought of and also.......WAY.......before "tupperware" boats came along.

We built our own boats then.
They were all sit-inside designs but what I have to say applies to YOU now.

We quite frankly "stole" existing designs....here's how:

You take a good-looking boat that someone owns, or you rent a good-looking boat and on a warm summer day over (at max) a weekend, you do this:

1) You coat the boat with a release compound.
2) You mix up plaster-of-paris including a great deal of long-fiber (2-4-inches) material.
3) You lay the P of P at least 4-inches deep over ONLY THE TOP HALF (being reasonably clever....NOT to lay in P of P in a way that will prevent the final "cast" from being removed from the original)
4) AND AS A FINAL STEP IN CREATING THE CAST OF THIS PART OF THE BOAT you build and ancor a plywood "base" into the P of P mold...such....that after you have popped the cast away from model (thereby having created a fully stand-alone independent mold for the top half of your new boat) the MOULD can SIT ON THIS BASE....in a DEAD LEVEL!!!!! attitude (this issue is quite important).
5)  And then you do the same for the bottom half
6)  And now you have two independent mold-halves OF A NIFTY NEW BOAT
7)  And then you "finish" out all the detail work so that both halves are very clean and very smooth
  And you return the rented "model" boat because you don't need it anymore
9)  And then when your mold is really good and hard-dried..
10) You varnish the recieving curvature.
11)  When the varnish is TOTALLY dry you coat the recieving curvature with parting (release) agent
12)  Then you cut and lay in the fabric-of-your-choice  (usually a combination of
E-glass and S-glass fabric....but at greater cost you could go entirely with kevlar and graphite-stiffener-fabric)....The fabric has to be AT LEAST double-layered everywhere and must extend BEYOND what you anticipate to be the final "cut-andf-mating" edge(s) of the two halves
13)  Then you have another choice....the simplest application of the liquid resin is to "paint" it in (or having the catalized resin in a separate tray...???...you take the pre-cut-and-positioned fabric segments and one by one drop them into the tray, let them drain a second and then place them into the release-coated mold.  Squeege out and away, all possible excess resin. (Catalize the resin in a degree that will give you working time.)

The "advanced" method is to use "vacuum bagging" techniques.  The method requires really,very little more in the way of material and prep and equipment (principally a vacuum pump...which one can actually fashion from an old refrigerator compressor).   But the details of this technique are perhaps too many to fully describe here.   The benefit is that vacuum/atmospheric pressure (on an overlay of plastic sheeting laid in above) will squeeze ALL excess resin from the fabric leaving a lighter boat by perhaps 1/3rd.

14)  With the resin cured you use water-pressure to help you pop the new boat-halves from the respective release-agent-coated molds.
15)  You clean the edges of these halves, mate & match them...and prepare and finish whatever "drain-hole-and-plug" arrangement you are going to use on your boat.
16)  Then you "tape" the halves together using resin-soaked 3-inch-wide off-the-shelf e-glass "tape" available from the same supplier where you've gotten all your glass supplies (TAP PLASTICS INC).

And now you've got a new boat that weighs 1/3-rd-or-more-less than ANYTHING made from "tupperware".

AND.....you have A MOLD....!!!!......from which ADDITIONAL boats can be made again and again and again and again.

===============

That's the way whitewater boaters handled their need for boats before tupperware came along.    Basically, if you needed a boat, you'd go find a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend WHO HAD A MOLD.    And you'd borrow the mold.   And after a weekend +++ of work.....you'd have a new boat.

You'd have planned the boat in a way that it would "crack out" at about 30 pounds (not using vaccum-bagging techniques) and then you'd go use it on a river and hit rocks.....use duct-tape to patch the cracks....and then at home would replace the duct-tape patch with a resin/fabric patch....

And by and by after many many river trips your boat would get to weigh 45 pounds from all the patches.......guess what you'd do....???...

Yes indeed.....you'd borrow a mold and crack yourself off a whole new "light" boat .....and begin the process all over.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why SOT's should be made from tupperware.
SOT users do not subject their boats to "river conditions."    A guy should make his own SOT from fiberglass and HAVE a lighter, more beautiful boat.

Judd

May I remind you about the "Patent infringement" law.  Using some good ideas to build your own yak is one thing, but "clone" a kayak is stealling people design and hard works.

I wanna see pics.

Dear Sailfish:  1) This is a practical world we live in.   2) Besides, LEGALLY ...!!!... this is not an infringment of anything, since the boat you build is for self-use and not re-sale.  Patent stuff only applies to resale.   3)  The design you  c h o o s e  from which to crack a mold may have "features" that you don't want (because perhaps...they are too difficult and annoying to replicate in YOUR design) and therefore you will eliminate them by, say, the addition of P of P "fill"...or in some cases doing an excavation...anyway, substantially altering the design to make it uniquely suitable to you.

Pictures.....don't have none.   But I believe they do exist.   Maybe a google search on likely search-strings:  "fiberglass layups"+homebrew   ...???...
You've got me curious, I'll fiddle around some.   But you do not need pictures.   What I have described is really-and-truly all you need.  That, some nice days, the materials, willingness, and a free weekend or so, and really nice would be the co-participation of a good friend whose "payment" would be that you will work on his boat too.   

I didn't mention above but:   If you wear a competent "chemical vapor filter" mask.....and wear gauntlet-style rubber gloves.....your health and safety will be covered.. ...oh, sure, and protective glasses.    Common sense, gentlemen.

Afterall.....you all know that the nonsense about methyl-mercury in fish is just utter bullshit.

Judd

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why SOT's should be made from tupperware.

Idunno. Glass definitely wouldn't fair very well in some of the launch/landings in my average season. Yeah, it's strong and light, but it's not very impact or abrasion resistant.

Dear Sailfish:  1) This is a practical world we live in.   2) Besides, LEGALLY ...!!!... this is not an infringment of anything, since the boat you build is for self-use and not re-sale.  Patent stuff only applies to resale.   3)  The design you  c h o o s e  from which to crack a mold may have "features" that you don't want (because perhaps...they are too difficult and annoying to replicate in YOUR design) and therefore you will eliminate them by, say, the addition of P of P "fill"...or in some cases doing an excavation...anyway, substantially altering the design to make it uniquely suitable to you.
Judd

Dear jwsmith,

The last time I checked: "Patent infringement consists of the unauthorized making, using, offering for sale or selling any patented invention".  Changing some features on an existing design does not mean a new design!  You even said: "We quite frankly "stole" existing designs....here's how"  and that is not right in my book.

Sailfish

Sailfish I'm just curious as to whether or not you have ever copied or burnt a cd, move ect...

Here's all you need to know (and more) about
the dangers of working with fiberglass/resins
http://www.doli.state.mn.us/pdf/fiberglass.pdf

AND HERE'S AN ABSOLUTELY   W O N D E R F U L
U-TUBE visual...!!!...of doing a fiberglass layup.
It is a MUST WATCH thing. 
   My comments:
The white stuff he is spraying into the mold is "gelcoat" and you will or will not use it on YOUR boat depending upon preference and desire for lightness.  Gelcoat gives your boat that beautiful finish....you cannot see the fabric...and every color is available to be mixed into gelcoat, so with it, you CAN make your boat any desired color.

The guy is using "chopped" glass.....where most boat-makers use fabric.   Any boat made of chopped fiber is going to weigh way-more than one made of fabric.   To this guy's project, weight is no consideration.

If you want to search the internet for more stuff use the search-string "fiberglass layup"+(anything you like...I would suggest "boat"...

Also see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiberglass_spray_lay-up_process

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-make-a-mold-using-an-epoxy-fiberglass-layup/

As for Sailfish's objections...
I'm telling you how we did it.
You/anyone is always totally free to laminate some giant blocks of foam together and then (just as they do with surfboards) "carve out" any artistic thing your heart desires.
My way is practical...it is reasonably fast...it is legal...
And yeah, it's "piracy" but in this case that piracy is ok.

Judd

The last time I checked: "Patent infringement consists of the unauthorized making, using, offering for sale or selling any patented invention".  Changing some features on an existing design does not mean a new design!  You even said: "We quite frankly "stole" existing designs....here's how"  and that is not right in my book.

Sailfish

Wouldn't worry about it too much - chances are you're not gonna see hordes of people doing this.

Sailfish I'm just curious as to whether or not you have ever copied or burnt a cd, move ect...

Andy,

I admitted I did make some unauthorized CD's in the past and feel bad about it.  The point I tried to make here is that he's telling people it's legal and there's nothing wrong doing it!

interesting topic    

I have been a kayaker since 1972........WAY......before SOT kayaks were ever thought of and also.......WAY.......before "tupperware" boats came along.

just out of respect of for the true pioneers of the modern SOT I wanted to mention that the Aussies
and the South Africans were paddling SOTs in the 20s and the SOT paddling style hit the states in the early 1930s. We have folks like Tom Blake (the original "Aquaman")and many others to thank for this.

tupperware kayaks were introduced in 73

Nah.....those aren't SOTs.
Rowing skiffs and shells have been around from the beginning of boats.

A person can blur SOT-development to make it look like they come from years and years ago.....????.... but no.

SOT's.....AS SUCH...!!!...are 100% the invention of modern divers and skin-divers who created almost as an entity.....the complete modern design.  The original SOT designers were divers.....all the early designs came equipped with "tank wells" behind the paddler.

SOTs remained entirely within the diving community until the very late 1970's when a few, very very few, appeared on the market clearly aimed at fishermen.   

What was happening was NOT that fishermen were demanding SOTs ...???....but rather, the manufacturers of diver-oriented SOTs were aggressively seeking a new wider market for a product they felt they could sell on a broader scale than diving would ever creat, and Manufacturers were agressively recruiting non-dive-outdoor-goods-stores to carry them for the first time.

Judd

Chopped Glass has it a lot of draw backs one of which it is hard to sandwich, if you don't sandwich it you lose strength and add air pockets.  Hand laid glass is the way to go.  or Fiberglass over wood was common for years.

Awesome pics, hydro!!!

Sorry Sailfish.  Yea I guess I wouldn't post a "how to burn a movie" on a forum either.