JEM Watercraft

Getting the dip in the deck is a little tricky. I drew it ok on another revision (picture not posted). But there's a big difference in being able to draw and being able to build it!

But there's a big difference in being able to draw and being able to build it!

Yes!, I think it could be done but would probably be more trouble to do well than it is worth.

Personally, I prefer the looks of the straight fore-deck anyway. All the deck does is keep the water out of the boat.

Earvin wrote:Mick,

I am planning a paddle up the East Coast from Newcastle up towards Taree area nothing too extreme but still challenging for a beginner to this type of paddling. Probably a paddle of a couple hundred km's or so.

A couple hundred km's , if my math is correct that would be about 120 miles , say you do 20 miles a day that's 6 days pushing it , more like 8 days and less distance per day.

Down here they figure 10 miles a day for traveling in the Everglades National park ( Florida) between campsites. During the summer a person needs one gallon of water a day and taking that much in a kayak , yes you would be resupplying along the way. At lease the water and possibly some food.

My kayak is 17 1/2 feet and taking out for a week I have room left over in it , even with my camping gear and food , water is replaced (when paddling fresh water) along the way so a 15 1/2 foot kayak would do the trick if you pack it carefully.
The gear for camping is sort of set by what a person needs , the food and water is what takes the space.
The wild card is the clothing needed for the season when taking out.

The main thing would be the cubic inches of usable space inside the boat for storage. Just like backpacking , the more cubic inches the bag will hold the more stuff you can take. (Everyone always over packs and never needs some of the stuff they took , especially me) I use to backpack with a 6,500 cubic inch bag , now it is a 2,700 bag.
Today my backpack is my boat it carrys me instead of me carrying it , the bag (gear) goes in the boat.

Just me thinking out loud about a trip of the length that you mentioned...........

Chuck.

The fore deck is actually an easy thing to do. (Small Forest People) boats does it like this. The last 3'-4' of the fore deck is split, sawn right down the middle. A long triangle of plywood, say 3' long X 1" base, is inserted. This expands the aft portion of the fore deck and it is raised.

A dipped fore deck DOES make a difference.

Thanks Chuck. Its good to hear other people's thoughts on a trip like this. Like I said it is still a way off so the plans are still tentative at this stage and open to changes. If we can be self sufficient we will be but if it turns out that if would be better to re-stock then we will plan for that.

My understanding was that 30kms a day was reasonable in a sea kayak given a persons experience and fitness but as I said above this is open to be re-evaluated.

I should say that my training for this trip has already started to get my paddle fitness and expereince up to scratch. It would just seem to be a more meaningful trip in boats we have built ourselves.

Cheers

Simon

Earvin wrote:I should say that my training for this trip has already started to get my paddle fitness and expereince up to scratch. It would just seem to be a more meaningful trip in boats we have built ourselves.

Cheers

Simon

Any time on the water in a boat made by you , the way you want it is always better.

One thing I have found by doing that , be prepared to stop at times to answer questions from other paddlers and even onlookers. Wood boats do draw a crowd and lots of questions. Just remember to smile when you say ..... I MADE IT.

Chuck.

Ervin
My boat isn;t a sea kayak , but on the trip we made down the Brazos
I could have loaded enough supplies for a month. If you go back and read it there is a list of things I had on board , we were comfy, this was all in a 15 ft boat that still handled very well , so my humble two cents is
15 ft is plenty long for a two week trip. Maybe a longer boat would be faster but you sure don't need the cargo space.
Ron

Ron - I have a tendency to keep things fairly simple anyway when I pack for camping so I think you are right when you say room won't be a problem in the smaller boat. With my limited expereince paddling in the ocean I was really just basing my desire for a longer boats on what others use for this kind of trip.

I guess the only way for me to tell is build the smaller version and try it out if I think the longer version would be better suited than I will just need to build that too

Hmm only visit this site most days and have just found this thread...Any progress?

This one is still simmering. Just a matter of getting back and investing serious brain cells into it.