Sedna coming together....Update 13th April

All the hatch surrounds are finished as well as the carbon fibre coaming.

A friend who is a carbon fibre wizard is moulding me a skeg box, and I am ordering bits and bobs from Karitek to complete the skeg system.

The deck and hull have been joined, and the bulkheads [one WRC one made from the cutout for the rear hatch! and 2 x Fomex ones] fitted too.

The hatch rims were glued on using Sikaflex 291..horribly sticky stuff!

I have built up a seat and cheek-plates from carbon fibre and glass mat, and have sanded down the seam and applied 3 coats of Goldspar varnish over the last few days.

On the scales the boat weighs 18.2 kg.

I have to admit to taking the boat to North Wales this weekend to try it out at Abersoch.

Initial impressions are that it paddles well; pictures of the finished boat to appear in the next few days....! [ 225 hrs]

Sedna Update April 1st...Hatches and coaming build.

Building the coaming is one of the more difficult bits to make on a kayak. There are several methods, some use strips of cedar or ash, others use plywood; I'm trying out a new method.

Using spacers cut from 3mm Foamex [pvc sheet] I tacked them around the riser with spots of hot glue.

... superglue was used to stick on another sheet of Foamex from which the inner was removed so it fitted neatly onto the spacers and was level with the top of the riser. It was covered with duct tape to act as a release from the epoxy.

Previously I used polystyrene foam to build up the shape but the foamex is a harder surface and easier to use the squeegee on without getting bumps in the layers of glass.

The spraydeck lip was then built up from layers of 200g cloth. I added some black epoxy tint to the later coats, which will prevent light spots under the final layers of carbon fibre.

Finally the coaming is positioned onto the riser and taped down while the epoxy sets.

I fabricated the hatch surrounds from foamex too, then covered with duct tape again..

It's a very big hole to cut out of the rear deck, there are only 1.5" left on either side!

The surrounds are made from about 8 layers of 200g cloth. They have to be strong; a 1m wave crashing onto the deck has some weight in it, so lightweight construction goes out the window in this instance

Plenty of thickened epoxy and lots of clamps hold it in place whilst setting. After some filling, filing and sanding, a layer of carbon fibre [reassuringly expensive] is applied over the surround. Here's the front hatch so far.

This method is explained in more detail by Ross Leidy in his Whiptail build on his excellent Blueheronkayaks website.

[171hrs so far]