Auld Blug

Half Term Lakes..

2011-10-27T13:05:00.003+01:00

Exchanging some Tesco vouchers for 3x their value in YH vouchers, we booked into Windermere Youth Hostel (which is really nearer to Troutbeck), an excellent location with plenty of parking available very friendly and helpful staff, and considerably quieter than the neighbouring hostel at Ambleside.

Woodpecker at the hostel bird table

Arriving mid afternoon, my friend Janine and I went for a quick loosener up from Hartsop to Hayeswater reservoir and up over the top via Satura Crag and Angle Tarn descending from Boredale Hause back to Hartsop at dusk. Ours was the last car in the car park so we cut it fine.

That night we feasted in the Queens Head, Troutbeck to celebrate Janine's birthday, and on our return to the hostel sampled several bottles of Hesket Newmarket brewery's excellent ales... there were no Swedish girls, so I made do with a few of these...

Janine checking out a cottage conversion project..

It was windy up there..

Next day we drove round Ullswater to Aira Force for a family walk. Never having been there before I really enjoyed the riverside and its many waterfalls, I came over all creative playing about with my camera...

Day 3, my nephew Stan joined us at the hostel and we tramped from Troutbeck over Wansfell Pike to join friends at Ambleside YH. It's a nice walk up to the top and a horrible one down on the other side... a man made stone staircase, which was hard on the knees for me, Stan just skipped down...thank god for walking poles.

As we descended the sun started to break through for the first time that day ..

And by the time we reached Windermere the sunset bathed the water in golden light..

And it didn't rain once in the whole trip!

Sprayway Santiago IA jacket as supplied by Go Outdoors.

2011-08-11T15:18:00.002+01:00

Adam Smith at Go Outdoors asked me if I would like to review one of the waterproof jackets from their sub £80 range and I chose a Sprayway Santiago IA model.

I already have a Montane Superfly jacket, which is a good few years old, but the thing they have in common is that they are both designed by the same person, Julie Greengrass, and I wanted to see how the Sprayway jacket would match up against its more costly big brother.

The Santiago is constructed from 'Hydrodry' which is one of Sprayway's 4 technical fabrics, and is rated at 5000mm proof, which isn't bad. It has a nice soft feel to it and doesn't rustle much when worn. The jacket has lined sleeves and a mesh liner over the shoulders and across the back. I suspect that as the cheapest option of their fabrics the entry level Hydrodry will not be as breathable and this mesh is to help with internal ventilation. All the internal seams are taped to increase waterproofness.

There is also second inner zip which can allow you to zip in a Sprayway compatible fleece

The hood is excellent, with a wired peak, adjuster velcro tab and soft fleece chin guard. It moves with your head, and is better than the Superfly one in my opinion, which is too big.

There are 2 large zip pockets, with storm flaps easily capable of holding a map, and an internal phone pocket too.

The long front zip has 4 velcro patches which can be used instead for ventilation. However this zip is a standard plastic one rather than a more costly weatherproof one, and this would let in water and wind in extreme conditions, so it's important to make sure the storm cover is velcroed up.

The cuffs have Julie's trademark 'upside down' velcro sealing tabs; I took this up with her a few years ago, and still don't agree with her reasons for designing a jacket this way, I find the velcro can catch on the main zip patches, but this is just my pernicketiness. A shock cord adjustable hem with nice big tabs finishes the jacket off.

In use? Well it's a decently made comfortable jacket at a very reasonable price. Over the last few days it has been worn in some horrid rain and coped well, and I would recommend it for all domestic use, rambling and even for light DoE trips, but for extended committed outdoor use I think the limitations of the jacket would show up as the material is quite thin, the liners for the sleeves could become very damp and the mesh liner could be uncomfortable under a heavy backpack when walking hard uphill.

However it is very good value from Go Outdoors at the moment and the Sprayway Santiago should be considered for a good all round lightweight waterproof walking jacket.

I am not paid to review any of the gear supplied to me by Go Outdoors, they simply ask that I give an objective and honest review based on my opinions and experience of similar outdoor products.

Sherpa Apex 2 tent..

2011-07-18T11:59:00.001+01:00

This was the first 'serious' tent I bought to go back packing in Greece and France about 24yrs ago.

It cost about £20, and gave me some sterling service.

It was really easy to pitch, 2 poles at the front slotted into the red plastic thing and a single pole to the rear. Like modern tents the inner hung from the inside of the flysheet, and apart from the lack of headroom it still gets used by smaller members of the family.

It still compares favourably in weight too, only 2.1kg, and the fly makes an excellent lightweight tarp too, as it goes fully down to the ground. Despite some research I have not been able to find out any more information about Sherpa tents; please holler if you have any info.

Retro eh?

Another new tent! Vango Eos 350 review for Go Outdoors..

2011-07-12T21:58:00.005+01:00

I like tents, that's why I've got 11 of 'em, and 4 of them are made by Vango.

The collection now numbers 12, because the good folks at Go Outdoors asked me if I would like to review the Vango Eos 350 tent for them. Not having a 3 person tent in my stable I was very pleased when it arrived and promptly put it up in the garden to see what it was like before taking it on a field test.

The Eos 350 is essentially a 2 season budget version of Vangos well respected Omega 350, virtually the same size with cost reduced by use of fibreglass poles and steel tent pegs, aimed at light summer use.

Like my other Vangos, [Hydra 200+, Artemis 500 and Venture 500, Dart is a pop up] the pitching sequence was pretty similar; 3 poles, fitting through colour coded external sleeves on the flysheet with the inner hanging from the inside.

The Vango Tension Band system helps you to get the right amount of tautness in the flysheet. Being a tunnel tent it does need to be pitched with the ends pointing into the wind not side on, as this will affect it in strong winds. It's nowhere near as strong as a geodesic tent, and this should be taken into account if one wished to use it in more extreme conditions.

The poles to be honest aren't great, fibreglass with alloy sleeves that come apart easily especially when taking the tent down and the pegs are steel and this pole/peg combination weighs nearly 2kg of the total weight of 6.2kg, however to replace the poles and pegs with alloy ones wouldn't be cost effective.

Tension Band system

However once up this tent shows all the usual touches that show how Vango produce such good value tents. Lots of inner pockets, big clear windows with shades, hanging clips, velcro tabs to tuck guylines into, a really tough groundsheet that extends through the porch area, and double doors, one with a mesh liner and several ventilation pockets on the fly.

Full porch groundsheet

But above all, there is loads of room, three people would be 'friendly', two better, you can easily sit up in it, the porch is big enough to fit 2 bikes inside and still be able to get in and out with ease. Also ideal for a wet labrador to sleep in! About 10 mins after I pitched the Eos it rained heavily for the rest of the night and it was bone dry the next morning.

plenty of room for backpacks or bikes

Go Outdoors are currently selling this tent for a bargain £54-99 down from £79-99, and even from this early test session I would recommend it as an excellent festival, car or cycle camping tent for 2 season use. I'm looking forward to testing it out in the field soon.

I am not paid to review any of the gear supplied to me by Go Outdoors, they simply ask that I give an objective and honest review based on my opinions and experience of similar outdoor products.

The Martindale Round.

2011-07-10T21:14:00.027+01:00

My mate Stef and I went to the Lake District so he could tick off a few more Wainwrights from his diminishing list.

We met up by the church just past the Howtown Hotel on the east of Ullswater late Friday, just as Stef had knocked off Hallin Fell. It started to rain. Warm fine rain...Having decided to travel light, wearing shorts, I reasoned if it stopped raining I would dry out soon rather than wearing hot and sweaty waterproofs.... it didn't stop raining.

We bashed up the 'path' through the bracken for 1.5m past Brownthwaite Crag to get up high for our first nights camp at Gowk Hill.... [memo.. don't wear shorts in the wet when going through bracken paths; nettles grow in amongst them, your calves get stung and yer boots and socks get wet....doh.]

Thankfully the rain stopped, there was a fast flowing beck for fresh water, and apart from a few midgies we had a pleasant night and telling a few yarns and I extolled the virtues of Sudocrem.

Day 2

No rush today, weather getting better and after brekkie we walked up onto High Street over Red Crag and over to High Raise. Great views and finally a nice bit of rock under the boots rather than mud, grass and bog.

self portrait..

High Raise

We could have gone up Kidsty Pike but 'been there done that' so pushed on, popping up onto the Knott with great views over Hayeswater, then down towards Satura Crag and our camp at Angle Tarn.

On the way I spent an hour snoozing in the sun, occasionally passing the time of day with the people making their way down to Patterdale or Hartsop whilst Stef sweated his way up and down Rest Dodd to bag another WR.

Looking down to Hartsop

Stef photographing small things with a big thing.

I had not been to Angle Tarn before and it is a superb wild camp site. Great views, good level places to pitch up, and after wolfing down my evening meal we sat and watched the water, Stef spotting the trout in the tarn, and telling some very entertaining fishing stories, whilst a few geese and their young patrolled the banks.

Angle Tarn from above

View from Camp Blug

Towards Camp Clarke...

The sun went down and the moon came out and it was just so peaceful...tired... zzzzz......

Early the following morning Stef saw some of the red deer from the deer forest in Bannerdale up on the ridge behind us, however I missed out as my tent faced in a different direction and I didn't see any the next day either.

It got quite chilly around 3am and I only got to sleep well after putting on my insulated jacket, fleece leggings and socks because I had left my lovely down sleeping bag in Wales and was using a ME Ultralight synthetic bag... Ultralight=Coldatnight... especially when camping by water in a valley.
Stef snored happily away in his Lifeventure down bag.

Day 3

Up early, packs a lot lighter now we went straight up the slope from Angle Tarn to Heckbeck Head [...feckin' love that name...] Stef going on across Beda Fell to knock off some more WR’s whilst I descended down Martindale Common to walk the road back to the car.

Looking south to Bannerdale.

About an hour later Stef was hollering down to me whilst making his way down the bracken[ugh]path from Raven Crag. We walked the last km back to the cars where I produced the best moment of the entire trip....not Sudocrem but..........

Cold... really, really cold Becks Blue beer fresh from the coolie box that Go Outdoors sent to me to review.

Unbelievable. The car had been in the hot July sun for 2 days, There was still ice in the frozen bottles of water and lovely lovely cold beer and sandwiches.

And as it was non alcoholic we could have a few and drive home safely! Brilliant!

It was a great trip, only 11miles [not counting the ups and downs], we're not mountain marathon men, we stop frequently to take in the views, get our breath back, take pictures have a laugh and a chat with other walkers and on occasion a quick snooze!

Abersoch, the Tudwals and a rant..

2011-07-04T20:26:00.011+01:00

A trip with my friend Ian setting off from Machroes at the far end of Abersoch beach to Porth Ceiriad, a short top of around 7 miles. Ian has purchased a 'Formby Finger' Greenland paddle from me and was keen to try it out on the sea, after an initial demo on the River Dee.

We paddled over to the Tudwals, 2 small rocky islands 1km offshore, and quickly went round them, quite a few birds still nesting on the ledges, and young cormorants practising their diving skills all around us. A few seals spotted, and unfortunately one dead pup floating in the water.

We decided to go straight across and round the headland at Trwyn yr Wylfa and have lunch at Porth Ceiriad, and do some rock hopping on the way back. The fine weather had brought plenty of people to the beach; unfortunately some of them also decided to bring their speedboats and jetskis and at the same time leave the part of their brain that controls sensibility at home.

It really does beggar belief how unobservant some people are when behind the wheel of a fast boat, we had to wave our paddles several times at boats that threatened to collide with us, and we constantly saw adults and children without lifejackets.

After a quick lunch and pitstop at Porth Ceiriad we followed the coast back round to Machroes, sticking our noses into some of the caves, and taking in the geology. We were going against the ebb, but it was easy paddling.

We both agreed it would be a a far better midweek trip and best done at the crack of dawn.

Coleman Coolboxes supplied by Go Outdoors.

2011-06-12T14:02:00.011+01:00

For car camping or a trip to Iceland there is one indispensable item of equipment that one simply cant do without.......a good coolbox.

For the last ten years or so my trusty Coleman box has accompanied me on virtually every trip I've been on. It serves as a seat, luggage store, food chiller, beer cooler, bait holder and on occasions chills the odd fish I have managed to catch too.

I was very pleased then when Adam Smith at Go Outdoors, one of Britain's biggest outdoor retailers of camping, hiking and fishing and cycling equipment asked me to test out a new Coleman Cooler Combo 48QT Coolbox Set, consisting of a Coleman 48QT Cooler, a 5QT Flip lid Cooler and a 1.26L Cooler Flask.

Coleman coolers are designed to keep large volumes of food and drink cool and if well packed with several freezer packs and pre chilled food should maintain a low temperature for a long time. In a quick experiment I put one freezer pack in my old box and 2 in the new large one which is about twice the volume, and left them both out in the sun, checking every couple of hours. Both packs remained cold for over 8 hrs, with those in the new box lasting slightly longer, however a fully loaded box would remain cooler for longer especially if kept in shade.

The insulation is obviously extremely high and more efficient than my old box. The big box has easy-to-lift, two-way handles which fold down neatly, a one-piece hinged lid which is sturdy enough to sit on, an inner tray and leak resistant water drain. It is also better looking and fits more neatly on the back seat of the car.

The small box is my favourite and is ideal for keeping your lunch, a can and fruit in, and testing with one freezer pack in, it stayed cool for over 12 hours, 8 of which were in a car left in the sun on a warm day. The flask works great as a bottle insulator. It would be handy for a child to use too, as it will withstand the bumps well, and has a dinky little carrying handle, however it isn't suitable for hot liquids.

Update 3rd July....

Off on a kayaking trip to North Wales from Thursday evening to Sunday, and with the prospect of being on a farm campsite in the middle of nowhere certain provisions would have to be carefully handled to ensure maximum enjoyment and the coolie was well up to the job on a real scorcher of a weekend.

I made sure all the beer was chilled down and flung in a couple of fully frozen bottles of water, even managing to pack some food in too. There was still some ice in the bottles after 60hrs, the box being kept in the shade as much as possible with a sheet of silver bubble wrap over it to reflect the sun, and the few remaining cans and bottles were still cold on my return home.

Top Tips: The coolie works even better when it's fully loaded, and the big frozen water bottles a much better option for a freezer pack than those blue gel ones. The small blue box is great for packs of sausages and fruit too.

Well impressed!.

Available from Go Outdoors stores or online.

I am not paid to review any of the gear supplied to me by Go Outdoors, they simply ask that I give an objective and honest review based on my opinions and experience of similar outdoor products.

The Formby Finger..building a Greenland paddle

2011-06-11T22:45:00.008+01:00

A few days ago with some time to spare I decided to build a Greenland style kayak paddle.

The main reason being that the low angle paddling style might alleviate some of my back and shoulder problems.

I bought the Western Red Cedar from the same supplier as usual, a bit shocked at how much timber has gone up in price, but 2 x 2.44m lengths of 140 x 25mm would be enough to build 2 paddles.

As the working thickness I needed was 40mm I had to cut the boards into strips and used West System Epoxy to join them together to produce a 100 x 40mm blank.

I used Chuck Holst's GP design, which is a very clear and concise instruction manual to building a paddle and I found it easy to follow after converting to metric. I won't go into discussion of paddle length, technique etc.. it's all in Chuck's article.

After the first cuts to remove surplus timber to form the blades, some careful marking for the loom and blade tips. The paddle is 12mm thick at the tips.

All cut out on a bandsaw, then a couple of hours whittling in the garden...

A remarkable amount of wood shavings resulted from extensive work with a block plane and a few sharp knives, great for lighting the bbq later on..

Blade tips after sanding.

Main tools used [no bandsaw in garden]

And finally a lovely smooth paddle.

After couple of coats of Danish Oil to seal it I joined some friends in Wales for a trip on the Menai Strait to try it out. Very different from a Euro paddle; at first the low angle style of paddling felt very strange, but after 10 mins it started to feel quite natural, and I didn't notice the lack of feather compared to my usual Lendal carbon fibre paddle. It has a 'soft' feel and after going into the wind and tide for 6 miles I felt like I could have kept going all day, and my friends gave it a favourable review too.

Only minus point is that the high front of the Rockpool Alaw's cockpit doesn't allow a true Greenland paddling style.

Many thanks to my friend Ray McCarthy, builder of the 'Wirral Wand' for his advice and support. I hope the 'Formby Finger' meets his expectations.

Liverpool Docks

2011-04-19T21:53:00.005+01:00

A pleasant easy paddle with a group of friends from Liverpool Canoe Club, I took a tour around the Docks, setting off from Liverpool Marina Harbour Club slipway at Coburg Dock.

New iron work but old stone work which has withstood the sea and the bombs in WW2

At various points around the docks there are depth gauges carved into the stone; this one in Roman numerals is the only one I have seen, but there may be more. The water seemed to be around 20-22' in all the docks we paddled in

I wonder if these are the original timbers at the entrance to the Albert Dock?

The new bridge across Dukes Dock.

The Liverpool Waterfront has changed immensely over the last 5 years, not long ago the skyline was dominated by cranes, and the surrounding roads were a nightmare as the city struggled to finish work for the 'City of Culture' year. Three years on it is just about back to normal.

There are many pontoons around most of the docks to attract houseboat and barge owners, and the Marina itself is full of craft old and new.

One of the oldest ships in the Albert Dock.

The Liverpool Wheel and the Echo Arena.

And finally the most bizarre craft we saw all day..WaterWalkers..

The leaving of Liverpool..

2011-02-27T17:38:00.005Z

HMS Liverpool 1980-2011

Today I went to visit HMS Liverpool, which is berthed at Liverpool docks for the very last time with Dan and my nephew Stan.

Launched in 1980, Liverpool will be decommissioned [ie scrapped under government defence cuts] later this year after an illustrious service history, this is despite a full refit in 2009 which cost millions of pounds.

HMS Liverpool's nickname is "The Crazy Red Chick" derived from the Liver Bird which appears on her funnel badge which, in common with other ships of this class, features some aspect of the crest of the namesake city.

She was part of the Naval Task Group 03 (NTG03), intended to take part in exercises in the Far East as part of the Five Power Defence Arrangement. The task force was, instead, sent to the Persian Gulf where they took part in the 2003 Iraq War and later in the Caribbean.

The number of people queueing to visit the ship showed the affection the people of Liverpool have for 'their' ship and talking with the crew and some of the old seafarers and ex crew who were present today justifiably proud to have served this ship or her predecessor, there will be a few tears shed when she slips her mooring and leaves the Mersey for the last time tomorrow.

Irton Pike to Boot

2011-02-17T19:49:00.010Z

My friend Karen and I enjoyed a grand hike today whilst on holiday in Eskdale.

We were rewarded with some great views of Scafell, Yewbarrow, Pillar and Great Gable.

The Mountain Rescue helicopter was hovering around Scafell, hopefully all involved are safe.

We walked from Irton Pike up to Whin Rigg, along Illgill Head and swooped down to

Burnmoor Tarn and thence to Boot where we refreshed in the excellent Boot Inn.

My lovely wife Francie and Karen's partner Nigel joined us at the start of the walk and met us at the pub!

Great news when we got back to hear that the Forestry Woods sell-off has been cancelled.

The Government are taking notice of some the people in this country at last .

Day 2

A short 4m trip, we walked up the River Esk from Brotherikeld Farm to Lingcove Bridge and back.

With all the recent rainfall the waterfalls along the route were at their best, and at the bridge you get magnificent views of some of Englands finest mountains.

I used a Lumix DFC-FZ38 camera for these pics; it's a 'bridge' camera, ie not compact or SLR, with an 18x optical zoom, and I am very impressed with it so far. The zoom is sharp at its maximum, and the built in 'anti-shake' function works well.

The Scafell Massif from Hardknott Fort

A wet start to the New Year!

2011-01-02T23:05:00.003Z

Happy New Year all..

So off I went to Craig-y don near Llandudno with the new Rockpool Alaw, to meet up with a few hardy souls with the intention of a wee trip around the Great Orme and a bit of rock hopping.

Bearing in mind I bought the Alaw after a very satisfactory demo session in Scotland last year, I got a bit of a shock when I found it really twitchy and was dumped out of it about 15 seconds of launching, because I a) got turned by a wave and b) hadn't put me spraydeck on. Cue huge embarrassment all round.

Right onto me gammy shoulder, which complained, but after a couple of Voltarol kicked in I relaunched and joined up with the guys for a brief trip from one end of the bay to the pier and returned back on my own.

Pleased to say that my Gul cag with the latex neck seal performed admirably, [see post 2009/10/rubber-me-up], and I remained dry after dunking.

Hopefully things will improve on my next outing.

A Rockpool gathering..

Seakayakpodcast now live!

2010-10-05T20:12:00.003+01:00

Earlier in the year Simon Willis the outdoors author and presenter of Seakayakpodcasts.com interviewed me when I was on holiday at Loch Fyne, Scotland.
We chatted for over an hour about building cedar strip kayaks and the podcast has now been published for the world to listen to.
I hope you enjoy it; Simon has built up a good collection of entertaining podcasts on many kayak related subjects, its exponents and characters, and I am honoured to have been included. Please have a look at his site, all the podcasts are available for free download. If you have an iTunes account you can also subscribe to them.

Sedna..a different view.

2010-08-11T20:14:00.008+01:00

My brother-in-law, Dan Kenyon, a professional photographer, recently took some pictures of my latest boat Sedna, before she got covered in too many scratches..

Wood, glass, carbon and rubber all combined together....

Cedar Boats website..

2010-07-16T10:44:00.006+01:00

I've finally got round to building the Cedarboats website aimed at UK and European builders of cedar strip kayaks and canoes.

http://web.me.com/cedarboat

At the moment I'm hosting it on my me.com account thanks to Apple; but it will be moving to its permanent site, cedarboats.co.uk very soon.

In the future I hope to be able to supply materials and kits for boat builders, custom designed boat plans, host short courses in kayak construction and build bespoke boats.

Please have a look and if you know anyone who has built a boat and would like to display it on the Gallery, or is considering building one and needs some advice, get in touch via the link on the home page.

There's an article in Ocean Paddler Magazine Issue 22 this month.

Scotland

2010-06-07T20:13:00.009+01:00

We went on our annual jaunt up to Loch Fyne a little earlier this year and were well rewarded with fine weather and few midgies.

Our rented cottage is right on the shore of the loch and it was a doddle to get the boat out, and I was on the water most days for a couple of hours.

There's little tidal flow in the loch, so it feels more like paddling on a big lake, and there are good trips in all directions, islands to explore and lots of wildlife and stunning scenery.

Plenty of jellyfish in the water this year..

At times it was like a mill pond...

Over the Bank Holiday weekend Kari-Tek held a demo day at Tayvallich on Loch Sween, which was only 20 miles away and a fabulous venue. It was very well attended with a full fleet of boats being tried out by paddlers of all standards. Some people took advantage of some coaching; £50 for 2 days..well worth it if you had never paddled a sea kayak before.

Strangely, I have never paddled a composite sea kayak before and took the opportunity to try out the Rockpool GT and Alaw, as well as the P&H Cetus and Scorpio.

I was very impressed with the handling of the Alaw straight away, it turns quickly, and fitted me so well I may buy one.The GT and Cetus are good fast boats, but I felt that my big cedar strip boat Tootega will do the same job for me at my pedestrian paddling pace.

The Scorpio felt much like my old Valley Aquanaut HV, but its spoiled by its thigh grips and the truly awful P&H skeg system that is a pig to operate.

Many thanks to Jeff and Ann for organising the event.

Some more pics:

Crinan Canal

Keills Chapel

This horse is used to transport the ammo to the cannon...

Sedna beached on one of the small islands in Loch Fyne.

And finally a picture of me in the new boat at last. It paddles well, and seems faster than Tootega and is certainly a lot easier to get on and off the car as it's a lot lighter.

As it's quite a low volume it wouldn't be suitable for say a weeks camping trip, but as a day boat its fine. The low slung bow tends to go through waves rather than riding over them and consequently a slightly wetter ride, but the Kajaksport hatches are fine. However it doesn't feel as manouverable as Tootega which I would prefer as my boat for open sea paddling.

Sedna launched at Ravenglass!

2010-04-18T19:18:00.003+01:00

I finally launched Sedna at the Ravenglass Seaquest yesterday, a 3hr orienteering event on water. It was the only wood boat out of over 7o entries, and I was very pleased with the great comments made by lots of people on how well the design had worked out.
I paddled over 10 miles in the time, not very fast, but enjoying every moment. Sedna will be even better when the skeg is fitted .
She feels a lot different to my other boat; not as manoevrable as there is less rocker, but much straighter tracking, and of course much lighter too.

Needless to say there are now a few scratches on the hull after over 15 launches on various types of rocks, pebbles and....small bushes.

A good thing I had my dry pants on; that little channel in front of the boat was waist high .......

Nearly there!

2010-04-16T22:41:00.003+01:00

All the major bits are on as well as 4 coats of varnish, and all ready for launch at Ravenglass tomorrow. I haven't fitted the skeg yet, hopefully it won't be too windy.

The finished boat weight came in at 19.4kg, just under my target of 20kg; hopefully the weight of the carbon fibre skeg box will be less then 0.6 kg!!

[ 238 hrs / £722 materials]

Sedna coming together....Update 13th April

2010-04-03T17:20:00.007+01:00

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.

2010-04-01T20:04:00.005+01:00

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]

Patterdale and Ullswater Splitters Meet.

2010-02-08T19:40:00.004Z

My old pals, Stef and Frank and I met up at Patterdale Youth Hostel this weekend, taking advantage of an excellent offer of £29 for two nights B+B.

Whilst they went for a stroll on the hills around Glenridding on Saturday, I went for a paddle on Ullswater with another pal, Phil who came up from Liverpool in his campervan.

Ullswater was quite murky at 10 am which led to the first ferry of the day being cancelled. There are a couple of big rocks in the middle which a big boat would definitely NOT want to collide with.

The Helvellyn range had a good covering of snow on the tops, and Striding Edge and Swirral Edge are still in full winter condition necessitating crampons and ice axes for those going to the summit.

We made our way to Howtown landing stage and back; a short trip of around 8.5m, easy going for a sea kayak, but harder for Phil in his wee boat. Apart from the ferry we had the water to ourselves all day.

At the end of the trip the water was completely still. I've never been to Ullswater before, it's much quieter than Windermere; no big hotels or marinas on the lake shore, and no posers in speedboats or jet-skis. Very civilised.

Following a few pints in The Ramblers, we retired to the Hostel where Frank cooked a superb seafood meal, rounded off with Stef's Sticky Toffee Pudding with custard.

Here's Stef after Friday nights session in the White Lion when we had a few nips of some excellent whisky and an 'interesting' rum......

A great weekend and good to meet up with the lads again.

New kayak Sedna in progress..updated 24th March

2010-01-31T18:16:00.033Z

Here's the stage by stage progress of my new strip-build design, Sedna.

I started off by purchasing 21m of clear Western Red Cedar Decking from the Deck Supply Company

I won't go into the construction method in great depth as that has been covered in earlier posts on the blog, but here's the forms on the old strongback....I won't be using it again, it's well past its sell by date now. I am hoping to build this kayak economically and recycling as much old material as possible.

...and the first couple of strips along the sheerline are on.

This time I'm using much wider strips, 24mm and 20mm x 5mm thick and should get it stripped far quicker than last time.

The strips are shaped using a block plane to produce a rolling bevel rather than using bead and cove strip, so glue weight should be less. I'm aiming for a very light boat this time round.

...9th Feb: finished stripping the hull...

17th Feb...the deck is well on the way...the wider strips are making it a much faster build, 42hrs so far. I'm not doing a pointy end this time, a shaped block of maple will be epoxied on later.

Stern view. There isn't enough clearance to fit a Karitek skeg box this time; I'm going to have to manufacture my own design. So far I have used 1/3 of the glue and staples used on the last boat.

Finally finished stripping the deck today, and after a preliminary sanding slapped some filler into the staple holes. The area around the cockpit was a pig to strip. [52.5 hrs]

I cut the hole for the layback today and planed most of the hull and deck to fair the strips, and then a quick blast with the orbital sander. It's a lot different from my other boat, less rocker, narrower, and definitely leaner all round. The cockpit is quite high at the front as I like to have plenty of room to wiggle my legs around; I also have a cunning plan.....[57hrs]

I started fitting the strips to form the layback. For every 3 strips I fit a full length one to keep them aligned and provide support. I'm using cyanoacrylate and wood glue to do it quickly.

I've ordered a set of KajakSport hatch covers and rims. They will add a little extra weight [1.5kg] to the boat compared to the way I did the hatches on Tootega, but I want ones that are easily replaceable and more watertight. Unfortunately they are a lot harder to fit as the rims have to be glued to a flat surface, so some extra creative fibreglass work will be taking place.

28th Feb: layback finished. [76hrs]

1st March: Sanding and filling then removed the deck and hull from the strongback and forms. Out of curiosity I weighed them on a spring scale: 9.5kg!

Allowing for say 6kg max of resin, 2kg max for glass cloth, then fittings, seat and bulkheads, I should be on course for a 20kg boat as planned. [81hrs]

5th March: spent most of the day filling and final sanding of the hull. I gave it a wipe down with a wet sponge to remove the dust and raise the grain. This gives a good idea of the colouring of the wood when resin goes on.

On the way back to the workshop I bashed the stern against the door frame and cracked it. Grrrr!! [88hrs]

9th March: The resin arrived yesterday and having been in a warming cabinet overnight is lovely and thin.

Last night I gave the hull a sealer coat of resin onto the bare wood, and this afternoon I heated the workshop up whilst I draped the 100gm fibreglass cloth over it, and trimmed it to shape.

It's half the weight of the cloth on Tootega and using a varnish roller, I covered it in less than an hour, and used a squeegee to remove the excess resin.

The experience gained from the last boat is really helping; it's easier to estimate how much resin to work with before it starts to thicken, and I'm pleased to say this layup went really well, only one or two tiny bubbles, and only 300ml approx of resin used, which is good!

It wetted out beautifully...

3/4 done. I hardly had a drip. Thin resin is sooo much easier to work with! [90.5hrs]

11th March: Got the glass on the deck today; its quite a stiff weave, and I had to cut a few darts by the cockpit to get it to drape well, but a double thickness will be fine in this area. [92.5hrs]

Been busy recently, here's some pictures of recent work to the end of the hull, softwood blocks are epoxied in which will spread the load for the toggle ropes.

Some people do an end pour with resin but that's heavy ...man.

The interior of the hull and deck have been glassed, the cockpit area with a central piece of 200gm cloth [never again, 2 x 100gm much easier to do] and some extra reinforcement to the ends too. I gave them a swipe of fill coat to make it easier to slide stuff inside the boat.

The interior is a lot neater than my previous boat.

I have also laid the keel strip and a couple of filler coats of epoxy to deck and hull.

Next up: sanding...more filling and sanding, building the coaming and the surrounds for the Kajaksport hatches.

[133 hrs / boat weight....12.8kg... materials cost so far: £475]

All pumped up!

2010-01-30T21:28:00.002Z

Being at a loss for things to do boat wise, I decided after some thought and and advice from fellow paddlers on the UKRG to fit an electric pump to my kayak.

I fitted a Rule 5oo gallons per hour bilge pump which is connected to a 12v 1.3Ah sealed lead acid battery located in a housing in the day hatch. The water squirts up the hose and out of the white skin housing at the rear of the cockpit.

The small black box thingy is a Water Witch electronic switch which senses water between 2 stainless steel contacts, turns the pump on, and off 20 secs after no contact is made.

The battery should provide 38 minutes of pumping time, which will do me.

Total cost £48. In tests the system works very well.

Wasdale.. 28-30th December

2010-01-05T21:45:00.005Z

We popped up to Wasdale for a few nights between Christmas and New Year, staying at the excellent Lingmell House B+B. Plenty of snow on the tops and one glorious cloud free night to watch the stars.

We were lucky, earlier in the week, the valley was snowbound, and the single track road was still very icy, however things improved over the next few days.

We met a couple who had walked over the mountain pass from Keswick; no mean feat, wading through 4' snow drifts at times!

2 other guests went up Great Gable, both experienced climbers, and reported 50mph gusts up on the tops.

We learned that walking with a very active labrador on a long leash is perhaps not the most stable way of trying to traverse icy Lakeland paths, so kept to the low level stuff, but part of me was dying to get up onto the snow-line at least!

Scafell in its winter coat.

I climbed it in snow conditions on Dec 28th 2003, but this year the weather is much more severe, and the mountain best left to the experienced.

Rubber me up!

2009-10-31T13:53:00.013Z

After my recent dunking at Walney, I decided to replace the adjustable [ie not watertight] neoprene neck seal on my Gul Fugitive cag with a latex one from Lomo

I've never been keen on latex neck seals, but thought I could do with one fully sealed dry top to complement the others I have with open necks, neoprene seals etc.. and was prepared to take a punt on some DIY.

With a scalpel blade I unpicked and removed the neoprene collar and the front neck gusset, removed the velcro strips, and carefully sewed the seams shut again and swiped some Aquaseal over the seams to waterproof them.

I stretched the cag over a plastic cutting board, and opened the neck hole to 8"

A stainless steel dish exactly the right size came in handy to hold the latex seal in place with some duct tape...

..which held it nicely in place and centred too...

it's important to sand the surface of the rubber so the adhesive bonds well...

A digital scale was used to measure out 24gms of Bostik 2402 adhesive and 1gm of hardener. It's important to get this ratio correct, and thoroughly mixed for 2 mins.

I spread 2 thin coats onto the seal and the inside of the material...

Leaving the glue to set until just tacky, I carefully placed it bang on centre with no wrinkles, and gave it a good rolling with a small wallpaper roller to squeeze them together.

McNett's Aquaseal could also be used as adhesive too.

Aquatape over the seams and where I removed the velcro flaps and gusset...ooh er!

Finished neck seal. I will report on whether it is a success later!

Piglets on Piel!

2009-10-20T19:56:00.014+01:00

8 members of Liverpool Canoe Club including myself set off on our annual circumnavigation of Walney Island near Barrow-in Furness, Cumbria.

We got on the water at Earnse Point in almost idyllic conditions, the sea was totally calm and virtually no wind, which made for a great days touring and watching the wildlife, and for once being able to have a good chat on the water with new friends and old.

We paddled south towards our destination for the night, Piel Island......

When we had the Island in sight, the seals came out to entertain us..

Little did we know that once we had set up our tents the Kune Kune Piglets of Piel would be rampaging through the camp....

The piglets didn't care what they could get their wee little gnashers on...however a couple of valiant club members stayed behind to ward them off until the Queen of Piel passed by with a bucket of food and led them back to their cosy sty.

Then we were besieged by the labrador puppy brigade....

The next day we set off to catch the flow up the channel between Walney and the mainland. On reaching the north of the island it was obvious conditions were rather different from the day before..

[Tootega is sporting some rather natty advertising stickers from Fitness Footwear and I will be posting a review of some equipment they have kindly donated very soon]

We chose to go into the wind and waves to get back to our start point rather than retreating and walk. It was heavy going and when we got back to the beach there was some dumping surf which tipped most of the crew at the last moment with the loss of 3 hats.

I excelled myself by getting caught out by a massive wave which tipped me at the exact moment I chose to raise my skeg. It was safer to swim in the final 100m.

Lesson learned...keep your eyes peeled!

Loch Fyne trip August 2009

2009-10-06T18:38:00.005+01:00

In August we travelled to Minard, just south of Inverary on the west coast of Loch Fyne for a short trip. A secluded cottage on the bank of the loch meant that even though we were on a family holiday I could go out for a short paddle on my own on most days.

The weather was somewhat changeable, but the wind was a constant F3/4 in the middle of the loch with quite a few squalls, to make it a wee bit bumpy..

Our own beach 100m from the cottage!

There were 2 small islands in the loch [An Oitir and Eilean Aoghainn] which were well populated with mussels, so it was Moules Marinieres for starters!

One night I went out with a crab line and a set of mackerel feathers, and was managed to catch 4 fish at once within 30m of the shore, they too ended up on the table.

We visited the Mull of Kintyre, Macrihanish, Tarbert, Crinan, Loch Sween, a day trip to Oban [great seafood shack by the ferry terminal] . And the George Inn, Inverary has a fine menu.

As I said, not a lot of kayaking done this trip, but lots of future trips and destinations have been stored in the memory banks for the future..

Gear Stuff...

2009-10-06T12:28:00.009+01:00

And now for something completely different; a list of the gear I are been mostly using this year:

Boats:

Tootega, my cedar strip kayak,

Valley Aquanaut HV RM [now sold],

P&H Easky RM [sold]

Sevylor K79 inflatable [beach fun!]

Paddles:

Lendal Kinetic Carbon originally 215cm shortened to 211cm following advice from Nigel Dennis,

Lendal Archipelago 215cm

Outerwear:

Palm Viper pants,

Palm Combi Bib salopettes,

Gul Fugitive cag,

Decathlon DG 500 cag.

Typhoon wetsuit long john+ top

Base layer:

Icebreaker merino tops [various]

Berghaus Tech T,

Immersion Research Thick Skin leggings,

Fourth Element Xerotherm top

Footwear:

Keen Targhee shoes,

Keen Taos sandals, [good all-rounders]

Merrell Chameleon sandals, [shortened by cutting a part off the front of them]

ALS Surf King neoprene shoes,

Green Crocs, [great out of the boat]

Gill tall sailing boots, [warm and secure on rocky/seaweedy ground]

SealSkinz socks [crap if they get wet inside]

* I don't seem to have any favoured footwear; I do like the Gill wellies a lot but they are a bit stiff and heavy. Sandals are great in the summer, and neoprene shoes a good all-rounder, but awful when carrying over rocks and pebbly beaches

PFD:

Peak Sea Zip

Spray Deck:

Palm Combi Tour

Playboater Tour

Safety Equipment:

Palm Ocean Pro 10m towline

Attwood Waterbuster pump

Vango 2 man emergency Shelter

Venture Kayaks Paddle float

NorthWater paddle leash

Lifeventure First aid kit

Brian's flares

Electronics:

Standard Horizon HS270 VHF radio

Apple iPhone [Tucabo Tide predictor and XC weather apps ..excellent]

HP iPAQ Voice Messenger phone

HP iPAQ hx4700 pda + Bluetooth GPS+ Memory Maps

Garmin ETrex GPS

Suunto Vector watch

Sleeping:

Macpac Microlight tent

Thermarest Prolight 4 mat

Go-Lite Feather down sleeping bag

Tesco lightweight down sleeping bag [very good..really!]

Cooking:

Jetboil PCS

Trangia 27 non stick kit with Gas converter

Home made meals or Look what we found! ones

Accessories:

Petzl E-Lite headtorch

Aldi wind up torch and headtorch

Leatherman multitool

Nalgene bottle with LED lantern in lid

Turbo lighter

Ortlieb Map cases

Alpkit Gourdon backpack

Exped drybags

Flexi flask water containers

Zojirushi Stainless steel flask

And thats just the kayaking stuff.

Out of the boat I like to parade in a combination of Alpkit Filo down jacket, TNF fleeces and waterproof pants, Rab Generator smock, Montane Superfly eVENT jacket

and a Lowe Alpine Mountain hat that really doesnt fit, but I couldn't be arsed to take it back for one the right size.

Funny, I've just noticed I have no clothing that uses Gore-Tex, maybe own brand fabrics have improved over the last few years, or perhaps I avoid it as its never worked well for me in the past.

A trip up the Mersey Part 2

2009-09-22T00:37:00.004+01:00

Along with my good friends Brian and Christian, we took advantage of the fine weekend weather and a 9.8m tide to go up the Mighty Mersey this weekend...

At one point we were whizzing along at 14.5 kph!

Sometimes you feel a bit inferior...

33.5 km in a mere 4hrs 23mins.

A grand day out!

Update on 'Tootega': The kayak has worked out very well. I had to lower the stern keel by 1.5" to help with the tracking as it was out of the water most of the time unless the boat was well laden.

I had a wee problem with the hatches which was solved with some extra silicone sealant.

I also replaced the minicell foam seat I made with a fibreglass copy of the seat from my Valley Aquanaut.

I am very pleased with the performance of the Karitek skeg unit, and the Immersion Research 'Reggie' backband too. [IR even featured it on their website]

All said, 'Tootega' has been the subject of many flattering comments on all of the trips I have made this year in Scotland, Wales and the Lake District.

I have designed a new boat, Sedna, a lightweight 17' Greenland style, which should start to take shape in October. Here we go again!

On the sea at last..

2009-04-17T22:14:00.006+01:00

Five of us launched at Crosby beach on Bank Holiday Monday for a wee trip on the Mighty Mersey.

Nicky kindly carried the paddles....the new boat is so light it is self-supporting...

The trip got off to an auspicious start when I tucked my VHF radio under my deck elastics, and my water bottle plopped into the murky river.

5 minutes of 'follow the bottle' passed before I gave up.

We went over to New Brighton for lunch, back over to the Liverpool side alongside the Arena, Albert Dock , Pier Head and Liver Buildings and back to Crosby and the Iron Men.

23.5k/14.5m in 4.45 hrs, a very pleasant day out with excellent company.

My nephew Stan provided admirable backup bringing paddles and using great imagination by sending my watch over the beach by the simple means of attaching it to my incredibly intelligent Labrador, Freddy, who ran 200m to bring it to me!

Crosby 'Danger' sign aka the Sh*t Outflow..

Where's me bottle?...

My new kayak has now been christened 'Tootega' following a suggestion by my brother in law Clifford following my 'Pimp my Kayak' post!

In Inuit mythology, Tootega is a wizened old goddess, who lives in a stone hut and has the ability to walk on water.

I like the water bit .

Launched!

2009-04-04T19:42:00.014+01:00

We went up to Coniston this morning to launch Boat. It was a beautiful sunny day in Liverpool when we left, and a cold windy one in Cumbria.

Here's me on the bank wishing I had worn more thermals....

The boat handled very well, it seems to be faster than my Aquanaut, and certainly turns more quickly. I only went out for half an hour, as my right shoulder is playing up again, but that was enough to satisfy me that the project has been a success!

The only niggly problems were the spraydeck lip is a touch lower than my other boat, and it was fiddly to get my deck on, [however it wasn't my usual one and is a bit tighter], and a small amount of water got into the hatches. I've traced this to the finger indents on the lids being a little deep, so I'll fill 'em with epoxy and file shallower ones.

Even with the wind trying to weathercock the boat it was so much easier to turn than my Aquanaut!

We weighed the boat and it came in at just under 24kg, which isn't bad as its got a heavy layup on the hull, and the marine ply bulkheads are 1.5kg, where weight could have been saved with foam.

Thanks are due to my bro-in-law Dan Kenyon for taking the pictures and editing the video.

www.dankenyon.com

Stand by for Action!

2009-03-31T19:50:00.005+01:00

Well thats the hard part done!

3 months and 13 days have gone by and from 21 metres of western red cedar decking I now have a brand new sea kayak, all varnished, fitted out , and ready to go on the water.

I got the Karitek skeg all plumbed in, and went for a natty blue and white choice for deck-line and shock cord. Hopefully sea / lake trials will take place this weekend, to get the seat and footrests in their correct places.

All loaded up and ready to go to Coniston Water in England's Lake District!

[That's where Donald Campbell died in 1967 when his craft Bluebird flipped attempting the world waterspeed record. I don't think I'll have the same problem..]

Now, what shall I make next.......

Pimp my kayak..

2009-03-27T21:15:00.007Z

I planned to call my boat Hei-Matau, which is Maori for 'fishhook'.

A few years ago my brother Dave came home from New Zealand [aka GodZone] and gave me a greenstone amulet, traditionally worn to keep the wearer safe on voyages over water, hence my reasoning for the above name.

However, the other day he wrote to me.....

Thinking about it, Maori feels a bit wrong. Polynesians don't really do

kayak. Shouldn't it be more native American, Canadian, Inuit, Greenland? The only reason I can think that justifies Maori is that it's not the obvious thing to do- that it's the wrong thing to do. Because paradoxically, oddly, sometimes wrong is right (Fairydown) This is very important- the name of the boat should reflect its design and ignite an emotional connection with the natural elegance you've created. When people see the name they should instantly be thinking..... Fill this

space.

... hence I am after a traditional Greenland , Inuit, maybe Scandinavian name for my boat.

All suggestions will be most welcome, or is Hei-Matau just right?

The final run in..

2009-03-23T20:18:00.008Z

I've been fairly busy recently, but have managed to complete the last major step in building a cedar strip kayak; joining the deck and the hull. It's good to see the boat in one piece at last.

I've also made the seat from Minicell foam, and finished the carbon fibre coaming, and fitted the Karitek skeg box.

Internal view of skeg box

Carbon fibre hatch rim detail. The hatches are the same size as on my Valley Aquanaut.

View of the inside of the hull to the bow... the black circles are carbon fibre patches to reinforce the bottom of the deck fittings

And along to the stern.

The pieces of wood were necessary to force the hull outwards to meet the deck whilst the epoxy set. You can see the double layer to reinforce under the seat and the internal keel strip.

The inside of the hull is a bit scabby, so I'll probably paint it.

The boat needed a roll and a half of nylon reinforced tape to keep the two halves together...

[and it's a pig to get off too].

I attached the fibreglass tape with wee dots of hot melt glue to keep it in place.

I used 2" tape on the outside. By trimming along the line of the masking tape when the resin has just gone 'green', a very neat seam is created, without the woven edge of the tape showing.

The hardest and most unpleasant bit was getting the resin along the tape on the inside, but didn't take as long as I thought it would. I rolled a length of pre soaked 1" tape on top of it for extra strength.

Joined at last !

Outside pictures

2009-03-11T20:53:00.005Z

I got the boat out in the open to take a few pics.

In the last week I have constructed the inner lips for the hatches from glass cloth and carbon fibre, and also the spraydeck lip in glass, which will have 2 layers of carbon over it when it's glued to the boat.

I have also fitted a day hatch, which is a screw in type, the same as an inspection hatch on yachts. Very simple and easy to open with cold hands.

Here's an inner hatch lip; not glued in yet as they need a bit of sanding and some more epoxy to make em shine. I have some 1/2 round 8mm neoprene strip which will go around the lip, which [hopefully] will provide a water proof seal when the lids go on.

You can just make out the deck line fittings, which I have fitted the same way as on a SKUK Romany...thickened epoxy with a circle of carbon fibre over it to reinforce.

March update...

2009-03-02T20:10:00.004Z

Well, it may not look like I have done much since the last post, but I have finished glassing the hull and also the inside of the deck. I'm totally surprised at how stiff and light the boat is.

I built up the sides of the coaming with wood strips, and today fitted the deck line fittings which arrived last week.

Nigel Dennis himself told me where I could source them, and they are a neat touch, fully recessed, and very tough as they are glass filled nylon and stainless steel. I've set them out exactly the same as my Valley boat.

The purists use webbing or wooden fittings, but I prefer these ones

They can be sanded down so they follow the lines of the deck too.

Next job is cutting out and fitting the hatches and building the spray deck lip.

I lashed out today and bought some carbon fibre cloth for these operations, so fingers crossed!

Glassing the deck Part 1...

2009-02-13T21:43:00.003Z

Neat eh! I think I have sussed out the trick to using Poxy resin.................. Don't rush.

It ain't like polyester where you have to get it down quick and work it around like a madman before it kicks off. Poxy just gets more and more sluggish, and you can squidge it all around to fill low spots.

I laid down the deck glass and used a 2" brush to liberally coat it [onto bare wood deck; no sealer coat this time] With some trepidation I noticed the weave fill, but not seep through to the wood. Then a minor miracle started, all over the glass little spots started to appear where the resin was starting to soak through.

This time I used a harder squeegee made from 1.5 mm styrene sheet, and in no time at all I had the glass laid down hard against the deck with only a few tiny bubbles, which hopefully will disappear as I turned down the heating and left it cure overnight.

There are a few 'silver' areas which I just couldn't get rid of, but overall a much more satisfying days work than the hull, which will need a right seeing to with the sander.

Glassing the hull Part 1..

2009-02-11T22:26:00.002Z

I started off by turning up the heating and carefully covering the workshop floor with old newspaper, then using a paint roller applied a coat of epoxy resin and went home.

The resin is kept in a warming cabinet [an mdf box with a 40w lightbulb] to keep it at a constant temperature, ideally at least 15DegC

As you can see compared to the deck alongside, the epoxy brings out the full colour of the wood

The next day I cut a length of 200g/m glass cloth and let it drape itself languidly over the hull, and trimmed it to around 1" of the sheer line strip.

I had to cut a couple of darts to get a good fit, smoothed it down , mixed up a batch of epoxy resin, took a deep breath and started to wet the glass out.

From then on I spent the rest of the day cursing 'Poxy resin'

Being used to glass matt of a coarser grade and polyester resin which is runnier and wets out quickly, this stuff was like trying to move Lyles Golden Syrup around.

The recommended method is to roller/brush on a good wetting coat, let it soak in and move it around with a squeegee to fill the glass weave, then remove excess resin, so that the cloth is bonded hard to the surface. Subsequent filler coats then fill the weave to a hard gloss finish.

My arse...

The problem with a light fine weave cloth is it's hard to get any small bubbles out, as they just don't want to move; adding extra resin wont fill them either, so there are a few more than I would like. Also, because you are working with clear resin instead of the usual opaque gel coat/tinted resin, there is so little room for error, so any transitions between layers or darts show up.

I won't apply a sealer coat to the deck; I'm going straight on with the cloth and resin, hoping the wood will 'suck' the cloth down.

This is what I have learned so far:

Build boat in the summer months, poxy resin loves warmth, don't apply a sealer coat, and use more newspaper on the floor.

This will be the last time...

2009-01-31T23:55:00.003Z

The deck and layback are complete except for a few strips that have had to be added , and a wee splice on the hull where it was damaged when I scraped it over a ladder.

Do you like my little Devil horns?!!

This is the last time you will see the boat 'au naturelle'; the epoxy and glass has arrived so it's all [West] Systems go...

The laid back layback

2009-01-29T21:55:00.005Z

This was the most awkward and time consuming bit of boatbuilding so far.

The usual way of fitting the layback is to glue the strips in 1 at a time, which involves cutting and sanding a bevel on each one, but I reckoned it would be easier to make a big ring of strips following the template I used to mark out the hole.

By making it a couple of mm wider I could then use my block plane to shape the running bevel around the perimeter; it just took ages, but I managed to get the joint pretty close and I'll give it a fillet of epoxy + filler on the undersurface before the glass goes on.

I'm still not sure whether to blend in the thighbraces to the coaming at the moment; as I use foam blocks in my other boat, so I may have a wee tinker when I get the deck of the forms and see how they fit.

Strip the deck me Hearties!

2009-01-25T15:30:00.008Z

Last week I found a buyer for my P&H Easky 15' plastic boat, which will pay for the epoxy resin and fibreglass I need; I was sorry to see it go, it was a smashing little boat and I had many a trip in it, now it's gone to a good home in Ireland.

I finally finished stripping the deck, and after some planing and sanding in the workshop, a clement break in the weather allowed me to get the boat out into the yard so I could tidy up and vacuum the sawdust and shavings

It was immediately obvious I must get the boat out more often before laying the glass and resin, as natural light is far better at highlighting flaws.

The cockpit hole looks very large at the moment, but it will be filled with a layback piece which is intended to lower the height of the coaming / spraydeck lip.

Originally I was going to use a piece of marine ply to form the layback and coaming, which is a quicker method, but now I'm going to construct it from cedar strips. Carbon fibre and glass cloth will form the spraydeck lip and the interior of the coaming.

I'm also going to try and design a mould to make carbon fibre recesses to take the decklines and bungies, using Valley components. Some people don't like combining hi-tech materials in a strip build, but I'm happy to have a go...

The Deck started..

2009-01-20T22:41:00.003Z

Finally started to get a few strips down on the deck.

My jointing technique is vastly improved and I'm finding it a lot quicker to do than the hull.

Unfortunately the wood I bought is a bit characterless and next time I will take greater care to buy some outstanding stuff and have a go at some fancy patterns maybe.

I'm using all the odd strips on the rear deck, taking solace in the words of Nick Schade in his book, 'The Strip Built Kayak' ...The main thing is to get the boat stripped, finished, and in the water..

Pointy bits..

2009-01-17T18:10:00.004Z

I've not really done much work on the boat this week, but I found a few scraps of maple and beech lying around the workshop so I glued them to the unfinished bow and stern to finish off the joints.

I had to steam the maple to go round the bend at the bottom of the bow and was really lucky to get it right first time. It's lovely wood to plane too.

Outside for the first time!

2009-01-11T19:17:00.005Z

I got the hull outside to clean up the workshop, and viewed it at full length from the side for the first time.

And it looks OK so far to me.

If I build another boat in the future I will select more consistently grained and coloured wood, however when the boat is epoxied and varnished there should be a pleasing transition between the dark and the light wood.

I estimate I have so far spent around 60 hrs on the hull + 12 hrs constructing the strong back and forms.

Hulled!

2009-01-02T19:57:00.004Z

The hull is finally stripped!

As the U.S. makers say 'I've filled the ball!'

I am soooo happy to have reached a milestone in cedar strip kayak making.

The last few strips were a swine to finish off; lots of planing and accurate fitting, and maybe one wee gap at the front to fill in where the strips were displaced in the twisted bow episode.

In 10 days time I'll start on the deck once I've got a work job out of the way.

January 1st ..could be better..

2009-01-01T17:25:00.008Z

Well there was a twist, it was a holiday, so I took drastic action.
I de- stapled back to the 4th form, and cut thru the strongback and removed the bow stem. The mdf had warped, and using a trusty piece of string I reckoned the bow was out just over an inch. [this is over a kayak 17'6''..long..some might not notice, but to a trained eye......]

I cut through the bow and planed an inner bevel which I roughed up with a rasp, and reglued it with plenty of glue, after realigning the lot using the laser and a set of guides on the remaining forms.
I bunged the cut off stem back in after hacking it up to fit and banged a few staples in to hold it in place.
I will have to glue on a cheater strip as it is a bit lower on one side, but at least it's true now!
I haven't a clue what caused the twist in the mdf, maybe the transition from a different room.

Lasered!

Progress..updated 31st Dec 2008

2008-12-29T20:40:00.007Z

I took it off the stands to see what it looks like right side up; there's a wee twist at the bow so I'll have to fix that before I strip the deck. ....bugger......

Update.....view from bow.. I should have fitted more cheater strips, now a wrap around to the keel strips will have to be done when they are in place. A conundrum....but I have a cunning plan...

Also a word of praise for masking tape; it's amazing how efficient it it is for squeezing the strips together. At the end of each session I stretch a few inches over the strips, and am amazed at how much glue comes out when it pulls them together, bearing in mind glue=excess weight.

Stern nearly finished

View from stern

I went into the workshop over the last few days and popped on some more strips, and now the boat is really beginning to take shape.

At the bow end I have had to fit some cheater strips to bring the strips up fair due to the upsweep of the bow, so that the lines can continue on the lower hull. Hopefully I'll have finished this part by the weekend.

It's so bloody cold in there that the glue is taking a long time to cure, so when I've got the hull stripped I'm going to move the lot into another room which I can leave a low level heater on to create a more stable atmosphere.

[I now wish I had used 3/4" strips it would have been a lot faster ..and used less staples!]

Stern view

I have started so I'll finish...

2008-12-27T21:03:00.004Z

I finally started stripping today.

Now that the festivities are over and with the wife out at the sales, I was feeling a lot better so I went in to the workshop to give the forms a final check over to make sure they were true, and level and decided to put the first few sheer line strips on....

They are the most important strips on the boat; if they aren't right all the other strips will look wrong too, so after the first 3 were on, I adjusted a couple of forms to fair out a hollow or bulge where something didn't look quite right before the glue set.

Finally I wrapped some masking tape to pull them together.

The ends are curving quite nicely, but I think I'll encounter a problem in around 6 strips time.

The ends are more pointy too; they finish further out from the end of the stem forms than I imagined but when they are trimmed back it should be OK.

Tomorrow I should be able to get quite a few more strips on. I'm not faffing around with Wood glue for the scarf joints any more. Cyanoacrylate from now on for speed. It cures much quicker, sands better and when it's encapsulated in epoxy will be fine. I need more clamps too!

All the pictures were taken on my iPhone, so apologies for quality.

Tiiiimmmbbbberrrrrrrrr!

2008-12-21T17:35:00.010Z

Oh joy!

I finally found the western red cedar for my boat. Less than 20 miles away at the Deck Supply Company. Their warehouse is a cedar treasure trove of lengths up to 5m with hardly a knot in sight. And some other highly desirable timber too

I bought 21m of timber and got a deal on on which was a bit manky, [but will cut up fine for the lower hull], loaded them onto the Forester and got them back to the workshop.

Each board was 26 x 140 mm thick; now they are 6 x 12.5 and 6 x 18mm, and I ended up with approx 1700 ft of it.
I used a brand new Freud ripping blade in my table saw; it took all weekend and I was very impressed [and depressed] by the amount of sawdust created. The manky board is a bit lighter in colour than the other stuff, and I may try out a tiger stripe on the hull

Next up routing in the bead and cove.....boring.....

I've registered on a strip builders forum in the US . No doubt about it, we are paying well over the odds for cedar in this country, off the shelf bead + cove strip would have cost me £670
as opposed to £380 if I had imported it from Ontario! As it was I paid £160 for the lumber.
As it's a labour of love the time is free

*Plus point, the workshop smells lovely!

A guy called Dustin in Ohio has worked out a way of using Google Sketchup and Kayak Foundry to produce 3D drawings of your Kayak desings, but not yet how to 'Skin' the design...

Building the forms up..

2008-12-09T20:48:00.004Z

I spent the weekend constructing the strongback and forms for the boat.

The strongback is the central spine of the forms, made from 1/2' plywood, rebated glued and nailed together. This pic shows the lot rough assembled, [and back to front in progress terms]

There's a lot to do yet, the forms have to be attached very accurately, and this will involve new support stands bolted to the floor so they can't move, and small cross members to screw the forms to after they have been aligned along the central line and the water line with a laser guide.

Can you spot the form in upside down?

Stern forms

Bow forms

Work will cease on this bit for a couple of weeks now; Ive sourced the Western red Cedar, but only boards. When its delivered and acclimatised, I have to cut it into 6 x 20mm strips, and route in the bead and cove.

The Miquanaut MK2...

2008-12-04T13:29:00.003Z

The scale model process goes on... I have made a mk2 version of the Miquanaut.

I had to. I put the first model on the top of my car and drove off. By the time I had that awful feeling 'you stupid forgetful **** ' it was too late.
Hopefully somewhere a little boy is happy playing with it at bath time!

Anyway, the first version seen in previous post ended up looking too similar to my Valley Aquanaut, and I thought there's no point in copying what's already there, so after playing around with the Kayak Foundry I came up with a new design which is more of a pure day boat and will hopefully be a boat I can 'grow' into for more challenging water.

The Aquanaut is a great touring boat, but not that fast or light!

Designing a sea kayak which to be quite honest is something I don't have a lot of experience of, is a lot harder than you would think. Reading up there are lots of subtle design features that will affect the way a boat handles, so I have tried to incorporate what I consider the best features of other boats, which hopefully will come together in the final design.

By tweaking hull forms, sheer lines, beam etc, changing length, adjusting rocker, position of the cockpit etc, all these factors can be seen in projected drag tables at different speeds, stability for a variety of paddler weight and loads.

I've tried to come up with a boat that will be light and manouverable with the amount of rocker built in, a fairly flattish hull under the cockpit similar to a Romany for good surfing qualities, and a fairly aggressive bow and stern. The drag tables indicate it should be quite fast for a 17 foot boat too.

I've printed out all the forms for the hull, and am now trying to get a source of western red cedar 6mm x 20mm cove and bead strip. There are companies in the UK who sell it at quite extortionate cost; it may be cheaper to import it from Canada!

The alternative is to buy 6" x 1" boards, plane and strip them myself, then router in the edges.
A lot of work, and a lot of sawdust too. I estimate I'll need 1000 feet of the stuff.......

There are some fabulous designs around on the web, Blue Heron Kayaks, and Guillemot Designs are the ones that explain very clearly the whole concept and well worth having a look at.

And for the bespoke strip built boat have a look at this!

In 2 weeks I should have the forms and strongback constructed, so keep viewing..

The Miquanaut..part 1..evolution..

2008-11-13T16:05:00.005Z

I've started a project to keep me occupied over the winter. I'm going to build my own strip built sea kayak.

Obviously it helps that I am quite handy at making things, and having a large workshop I can utilise certainly helps.

I've been using a programme called Kayak Foundry, which is available as a free download, but it's so good it's well worth making a contribution if you use it. Essentially it lets you enter and alter all the parameters you wish, to virtually design a custom kayak, with drag factors, stability etc

When you are happy it's possible to print off the forms at full scale to build the 'spine' of the kayak, which will be used to support the red cedar strips I will eventually build it from.

I sort of know what type of boat I want; a relatively fast stable tourer, but with a bit more rocker[ manouverability] than my current Valley Aquanaut HV [High Volume] which is a rotomoulded polyethylene boat, which is, er, not a light boat to say the least.

One of the main advantages of a wood boat is that it can be incredibly light even compared to a carbon /kevlar composite boat, and I will be hoping to produce something really special.

I've already started on a model of the Miquanaut, as I call it as it's loosely based on the lines of an Aquanaut, building a 1/8 scale model, which considering I'm a professional modelmaker is quite fun, and its also given me a huge insight to the construction method itself, and already highlighted future problem areas.

For those interested, the forms were produced on a laser cutting machine, and the strips made from 1.0mm Fomex at 3mm width, which equates to a 24mm strip at full scale, but I'll probably use 20mm for exta pliability. I used superglue [extra thin grade] to stick it together and U-Pol Super smooth body filler to fill the odd gap.

I'll go into the physics of wood strip and construction in Part 2.........

A pint of cider please Ma'am.....

2008-10-20T20:55:00.008+01:00

Going under the Barrow/Walney Island Bridge

After a months delay 8 of us finally made the journey to Walney Island near Barrow-in-Furness with the aim of circumnavigating the island with an overnight camp on Piel Island.

Unfortunately the wind was up to F6-7 on the west of the island, so we went as far north as possible, stopped for lunch and made our way back down the east side to Piel.

Piel Island and Castle in the distance .. the water and wind was constantly changing..here it was calm and the sun came out.

Beware! Dangerous Castle!!

The Queen of Piel told us that steel bars are to be fitted at great cost to the lower apertures to the castle to prevent stupid people hurting themselves.

The intrepid paddlers took shelter from the storm in an open doorway..

Sunset across the sands...

Beautiful Barrow Docks.

Piel Island is an interesting place. There's a hotel, a castle and 4 houses.

More history here

The custodians of the island are Steve and Sheila who are the current King and Queen, who opened the pub especially for us, and we were most grateful. When the renovations to the hotel are finished in 2 years, the pub will become a bunkhouse. It's a basic campsite so don't expect much if you go there. But it is worth it.

A trip up the Mersey

2008-10-04T13:29:00.019+01:00

Steve and Brian just past Seaforth Dock

Cruise ship on the way out!

Birkenhead Sunset

Royal Liver Building and Liverpool Pilot vessel

Tuesday 3pm... Brian calls 'Fancy a quick outing with Steve tonight?'..........." Ooo...' I thought. He meant a trip up the River Mersey from Crosby Baths.

High water was at the Albert Dock was at 6-27 so as soon as possible the 3 of us were on the water with the flood whisking us up the river. Just dodging a container ship leaving Seaforth Dock, we passed the heap of shredded scrap destined for Poland where it is recycled for us to buy back. That makes sense??

The Mersey Mammoth Crane was making its way back to its home berth and as the sun glinted off one of the new office towers a cruise ship left the' International Cruise ship Terminal' which is basically a posh pontoon and the subject of some sarcastic debate.

The Sea Cat Ferry left on the high tide and we kept a wary eye out for its wake.

We nearly made the Liver Buildings but had to turn round to catch the ebb, finally landing back at Crosby at 8pm hoping an iron man wouldn't bash our hulls in the gloom. A grand night out.

Skye

2008-10-03T14:37:00.014+01:00

View from Midge Breeder Central [Loch Leven]

The Quiraing

Fingals Fingers

Port Neist lighthouse looking to Lewis

Loch Dunvegan seal colony

Staffin Bay

We went to Skye for the first time this year. Its a long way; 458 miles door to door but well worth it. As soon as you get over the Bridge there's a lot of 'Wow' factor for a first time visitor!

F + I stayed in a converted barn, 'The Bothy' in the village of Staffin, on the northeast coast of the island. Very peaceful, with great views of the Quiraing Mountain and over The Minch to the mainland. John MacKenzie, the owner is a lovely bloke who told us many tales and helped me celebrate my 51st birthday with a wee dram [or two] of Caol Isla malt whisky !

Skye is a big island, and there isn't enough time to explore it in a week. You have to accept you are going to do a lot of driving as the villages, beaches and places of interest are well spread out. The sea lochs cut inland quite a way, so inevitably you have to go round them.

Next time we will try to base ourselves in the centre of the Isle; I've already noted a good looking campsite at Loch Greshornish, which looks just the job.

Out in the Aquanaut, I paddled round Loch Dunvegan to see the seals, and over to the islands off Staffin and Flodigarry. While we we away we were surprised to find out it was brolly weather in the rest of the UK, but the fine if windy Skye weather limited me to fairly sheltered coast hugging trips on my own. [On reflection, I should have taken my smaller Easky boat, which is lighter smaller and better suited to rockhopping.]

We stayed a night in a wee camping cabin at the back of The MacDonald Hotel at Kinlochleven on the way home, where some of the backdrop scenery to the Harry Potter films is filmed.

It is as my mate Frank says: 'Midge Breeder Central'