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Ok this is my first build and I'm happy to say it's coming together very nicely so far except for about a quarter inch twist in the back of the kayak, my question is, is it a big deal ? Should I overlook it ? I'll probably be the only one to notice it but then again I don't want to end up paddling in circles because of it ! Lol is there anyway of correcting it after the fillets and interior glassing are done ? I've been working in a confined space in my garage and kicking myself for not seeing it sooner ! Thanks for your input !
3 replies:
RE: Ch 17 slight twist in stern
Hi Hortonpt,
the short answer is no and yes. it's probably not a big deal and yes, you can fix it.
if it was not obvious enough to see until you really looked carefully, then it is probably not big enough to really effect how the boat will handle....so i doubt you will end up paddling in circles. that said, i think i know what you mean by twist, but it would be great if you snapped and posted a picture of it so we can move from an assumption about what a twist is to the reality of what it is.
on fixing it, i think i did something on a similar build build a long time ago. when i got behind the boat, the stern was not in the vertical and was slightly twisted. and i was very frustrated with myself and had gone as far as you did with fillets and internal glass without noticing...again, small garage like yours so i really never got behind it to see the problem.
how i fixed it was a bit of an effort but not all that complicated. i used a sharp saw (bonsai saw) and cut the seams from the back forward about 2 feet, i then re-aligned the pieces to take the twist out using strapping tape to hold it in the correct position. then when i was comfortable that i could take the twist out, i took the tape off, painted the newly cut seams with epoxy/cell-o-fill and then retaped it into the correct position and let it cure.
nobody ever knew there was a repair. it was now peferctly vertical.
depending on the twist, you may need to cut farther or shorter back then 2 feet....but you are basically disasembling, correcting and re-assembling. other than the agravation, when i finally put my mind to it, i had the whole thing corrected in about 4 hours (very leisurely) and then an overnight for the epoxy to cure.
i hope that helps.
h
RE: Ch 17 slight twist in stern
Thanks for the replies! After thinking this over and beating myself up over this I decided to leave it as is ! Lol I too don't think it will affect the handling of the boat because it's really not that bad ! Wish I could figure out how to post a picture here! Lol I ran a yard stick down the ke line at the stern and like I said it's about a quarter inch out of alignment. Thanks again
RE: Ch 17 slight twist in stern
» Submitted by JohninSD - Sat, 5/15/21 » 3:34 PM
Had the same thing happen when I built my Ch 17 years ago. It was my first build also. After thinking about it for a while I decided to try to fix it before I glassed the hull. My solution was to saw a vertical kerf in the stern placed so that when it was subsequently clamped closed the twist disappeared. Filled the kerf with thickened epoxy and clamped it shut for a few days. Harder to describe than it was to do. Whatever damage was done to the interior glass and fillet was later buried in the end pour. That was 20 years ago and the boat is still together so it must have worked.