Skinning a Kayak

I have been at Isabelle's kayak a little this weekend. I sanded the seat slats and the last of the stringers and it looked about as ready as it was going to be. Isabelle got to sit in it for the first time and seems to like the idea of having a boat of her own. I guess I know how my father felt when he made me my first kayak (Merci, Bernard). Anyway, below are a few shots of the process so far. I think I have about 15 feet of stitching to do and I've got about four feet done in three hours. That means it should take me another eight to ten hours to get it done, and that doesn't include stitching the coaming in. Then comes the fun part-painting it. I haven't agreed on a colour with Isabelle yet. It will not be pink and it will not have a rainbow on it. I'm leaning towards turtles and starfish, maybe red or blue with yellow accents.

The first job was getting the coaming ready. As my Dad always says, you can never have too many clamps kicking around your workshop.

This is the boat ready to be skinned. I bought some canvas a few months ago and made sure it was large enough to wrap completely around the boat.

The slats are just sitting on the frames. Ideally they should be lower (some boats don't have any), but anyone in this boat won't have a very high center of gravity. Isabelle in her boat for the first time.

For those of you who know kayaking this is what I do as I celebrate riding a huge wave or running a killer rapid. It will be a while before we get to that with Isabelle.

This is what the process looks like. Note the curved needle at the end of the floss (yes floss, unwaxed and unflavored). The staples help to keep the canvas taught as I work along the seam.

Above is a picture of my handy work on the bow. It may be difficult to see but you need to stitch in the flaps you create as you move along the length of the boat to keep the skin flat.

This is finally starting to look like a boat.

A few weeks ago I went to the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival. I have been working on a long post from that weekend in Charleston. Please stay tuned. I hope to get it out this week.

I'll leave you with a trademark shot of the girl.