JEM Watercraft

Had a pretty good day today, in spite of the heat. All panel splices are done as are the temp frames.



Cheap Luan. I like the grain on this stuff.



Rebated the temp frames for the sheer clamps. I remembered this time to do it before I stitched them in.



Started stitching but ran out of steam.



Its beer O'clock

Lookin good, mate. We call it "beer thirty" here.

Coogs

Thanks Coogs.

Ben a little busy again today.

Started stitching in the early morning cool.



The trouble with stitching on a work bench is that it is allways hard to work my wire stitches. Not enough room to get my hands easily under the boat.

This is my solution.



Once the hull is stitched, the hull needs to be turned over for the exterior fillets. A couple of saw horses works fine, provided they are level with each other. I no longer have room in my shed for saw horses so I setup a couple of raised cross pieces to rest the sides on. Again, it is critical at this stage to have the cross pieces level. A quality spirit level is a big help with this.

Starting to look like a boat.





More beer O'clock Too hot to do any more today.

Geeeez Mick. You're flying. Looking good. I like the work bench set up. Think I'll try that for my next build...

Thanks John,

I become obsessed once I start a build and this one is no different.

The cross straps on my bench are just some old disposable webbing lifting slings I picked up somewhere. You should be able to get them from a pipe merchant for nothing or very cheaply anyway. They throw them away when they break into a new bundle of pipe. I used to use them for lifting motors out of my cars. They work a treat.

Re this boat, Before I discoved the delights of building my own, I used to fish from a very good factory sit in kayak. (a modified TK1) I had it custome made for me with an extended cockpit and a couple of other little tricks that I thought would be handy at the time. The boat worked well for me but I found myself looking for something with a little more volume and stability but still be small and light enough to be easy to chuck on the roof of my car at a moments notice. Of course, it had to be also a very good boat to paddle. My Laker is a superior boat to my TK1 for my purposes in every way and my TK1 is for sale now.

There is something about Okwata that I find hard to define. From the moment I saw the concept drawings, I knew that I had to have one. I think it will prove to be superior than my Laker, both as a paddle craft and as a fishing kayak. It will certainly be more sea worthy or big water capable, but that is only part of it. I think it has more to do with the classicly beautiful lines and the fine entry at the bow, combines with the strong tumblehome panel joining sides to the decks.

Whatever it is, I am back to w@#k now for a couple of days so this will give mu taks time to cure up properly. Been thinking on the sequence in which I have been doing things. Gonna change it a little to hopefully speed things up a bit.

Just an observation from a fat old man, but - I think that shed needs thirty or forty more boats in it. Man! It looks BARREN.

Hey Mick
Lookin good


Joe W.

Mick,

As ever a good detailed build, can I ask favour would you take a shot or two of the stitches up close especially the ones around the frame? i can't quite make out how they sit.

Hopefully you'll read this before you start to remove them (although at the speed you're going it'll be floating before you read this )

I'll be very interested to see how this turns out although it's down on the priority list for now.

Tor

Thanks guys,

Jack, LOL I love building them as much as I love paddling these boats. I need another shed.

Tor,

Here ya go mate.

These are shots of the stitches holding the temp frames in place.

Outside of hull,


Inside, bottom centre



Inside bottom to side panel



Top of side panel to temp frame