Have you checked out the videos in our "Shop Tips" section on strip planking? There are a number of them: http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/strip_planking/. Hopefully one or more will answer your questions. Nick Schade's Guillemot Kayaks site also has a substantial library of videos (several of which you'll also find on our site, referenced above): http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guillemot/information/boat_building_making_kayaks_canoes_and_small_boats/free_boat_building_videos_stitch_and_glue_strip_built

I didn't see anything in the shop tips that applied to the hybrid style. Definately would like more info on the cockpit combing. 

Nick's videos are great but geared toward the expierenced builder. The time delayed video with no verbal instructions and those styles of boats doesn't really help. Nick is awesome but the way he cranks along in the videos is a bit overwelming.

I just finished a Petrel, and I'd like to help, but I'm not sure where to begin. Perhaps if you can list some questions or issues, I or others can answer them.

There are a couple of ways to do a cockpit, but that actually is towards the end of the deck building process. You get the deck built and then cut the cockpit area out. After you've stripped the deck, you'll have gained a lot of experience that will guide you as you build the cockpit.

I built my cockpit combing by laminating thin strips of wood together. I think Nick has a couple of videos on building a combing. You can also build the combing with short vertical strips of cedar, I think.

Stripping with cedar is all in the doing, one strip at a time. I think that every one of the strips in my Petrel is different from the next. At each stage in the stripping, I spent some time with uncut strips and layed them into place and figured out how they would go ahead of time. Strips bend easily on the flat side but not so easily on the vertical side, so that dictated what I did a lot. I spent a lot of time at the end of every session looking at what I had done and thinking about the next step, and several times, I tore out a couple of strips and did it over. Also, I tended to put in about four to six strips at a time and called it a day. It took a lot of concentration, and I mentally wore out, but then I'm an old guy.

You might want to look at pictures and figure out some basic ideas of patterns. But again, also spend some time bending uncut strips and see how they fall and fit into place before you commit to a pattern.

3M makes a green masking tape that sticks well and I adopted that along with staples while gluing up. I stapled my strips and no one notices the little holes now that the kayak is finished.

I bought a cheap iron at Target and steamed a lot of my strips before I put them in. I set up the iron on a board next to the kayak. I took a strip, looked at how I had to bend it and then steamed it into that shape. Once I started doing that, things went better.

Simple trick: when I wanted to butt two strip together, I simply clamped the ends together with a small spring clamp and sawed them together. That way the angle of the cut matched. I took to using a small back saw, but Nick uses a Japanese pull saw. Whatever works. I found a $10 Craftsman "dovetail" saw that worked well. Go figure.

The other thing is to master cutting tapers at the beginning and end of your strip to make them fit. I have a bandsaw, so I took to marking the beginning and end of the taper and then drawing a line along the taper and bandsawing the strip. Then I used a small plane to fine tune the taper. Sometimes I used a sharp knife instead of the bandsaw. I spent the money for a Lie-Nielsen block plane (the standard one, not the low angle) and grew to love it. It is absolutely my favorite tool.

I made a ton of mistakes, and they're baked in. Sunday I took my Petrel out for the third time and I put it in the water next to a canoe club. People went nuts. They did not focus on my mistakes, but on the whole kayak. I realized I had a truely unique kayak, and all the sleepless nights were worth it. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask questions.

Here's the album of my wife's Shearwater 16 hybrid. I hope this helps.

Dan

I have no video to offer, but a couple photos of the sport hybrid build.  On the second photo, if you look at the underside of the deck, where it meets the coming ring, you can see that there is a small step-off.  This is because the cedar strips are about 3mm thicker than the okome ring.  When you glue these junctions together, strip by strip, just try to get the top surfaces flush.  I used those little clamplike paperclips to help me with some of them.

While it wasn't part of the plans, I put a small thickened epoxy fillet on the oval junction between the coming ring and cedar strips at this stage.  This seems like a weak spot and the fillet was easy to do, is never seen, and provides a very strong transition between these two diffrerent wood surfaces.  I put down the fillet immediately before laying down the fiberglass that covers the undersurface of the deck, so that the glass cloth would be wetted out by the wet fillet.  Its probably the best part of my build.

This was my first experience with cedar strip work.  Observe, experiment and try to enjoy.

Any other particular questions?

You can see how I did mine at http://twofootartist.com/merganser-construction-notes/  -Wes

Thanks for the help all!  Truely sweet kayaks Twofoot, Hickory and Dan. (Dan, noticed your NY plates. Tryed to identify your waters. Not from WNY as far as I could tell)

Unfortunetly I can't even look at my yak due to frustration level and the idea of doing something I would regret later.

I realize that I will not have the time to finish her before the cold. I'm stepping back and taking a breather. Then I am making one of two decisions.

1. Take my time, try to figure out what I can and finish it when I finish it. If that's the case I will just have to deal with paddling my plastic or composite yaks. 

2. Sell it. A friend of mine said if I don't want to continue on the build he would give me $800 for everything. I know this is about 1/2 of what I payed (kit + brushes, cups, tools, wood inlays, vinyl graffics, etc) but I'm thinking 1/2 is better than nothing. 

Thanks again all, you are a great group of people.

kayakris...

I'm in the lower Hudson Valley. You can contact me if you want at danielthaler at gmail dot com and we can chat on the side.

Dan

Don't give up now. Look at the timeline on my websites. I started in mid-August and finished up by the end of October, working an average of two hours a day.

Remember that you are not building fine furniture; you're building a boat for fun. It doesn't have to be perfect. It can - and will - have a lot of flaws that only you will see, and after a few paddles, even you won't notice them.

-Wes

I would encourage you to keep going.

Here's an easy way to proceed.

First, put a couple of strips in along the chine, front to back and all around the kayak deck.

Then, the easiest way to proceed is to run all the rest of the deck front to back, starting at the middle. This is also an easy way to make that upsweep at the bow and stern. 

If you look at the photos on pages 6 and 7 of the current CLC catalog, you'll see some variations of these patterns, and they look pretty good.

On the lower right of page 7, you see some examples where builders have put a couple of sweeping strips along the chine, and run strips parallel down the middle. You'll also see some examples of how you can use light and dark pieces to make nice looking patterns.

There are examples of a lot of very fancy patterns on pages 12 and 13 of your kayak, but you really don't have to go there.

You can do it.

Cheers, Bob

FYI, I just saw that Nick has a newly designed website and it has a page with a directory of videos"

http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/guillemot/information/boat_building_making_kayaks_canoes_and_small_boats/free_boat_building_videos_stitch_and_glue_strip_built

Not videos, but a few pics of my build might be of some help.

https://forum.fyneboatkits.co.uk/viewtopic.php?id=151&p=1

To join each plank to the coaming, I used little clamps as Hickory describes. I put a tounge depressor (flat wooden stick) wrapped in tape to pack out the coaming to the same thickness as the strips, to help clamp the strips flush on the top side of the deck.