Wednesday, July 22, 2009

MAIDEN VOYAGE(S)

Took the Isfjord out to get her wet, a three hour paddle in the Norwalk Islands on Long Island Sound, then a practice session on Lake Wintergreen in Hamden.
I still have some outfitting to do, refining the back pillar, installing thigh braces and building up the foot braces. Also have to track down a leak in the rear hatch when rolling (most likely suspect the point where the skeg cable passes through the stern bulkhead, easily caulked).
First impressions. The kayak is as described and fun to paddle. It turns more freely than any kayak I've owned; the stern is fairly loose and the boat practically spins with a good sweep and bow rudder combination. The skeg straightens things out quickly in a beam wind. There's a lot of volume in the bow, and the boat pushes through a bit more resistance when accelerating; as advertized, the hard chine increases wetted surface and the boat is not as quick as my Explorer, and considerably less so than my Outer Island or the Viviane I used to own. There's considerable stability especially secondary and it rolls well. The relatively flat stern makes the Isfjord want to take off on even small waves and surfing should be a blast.
Great boat!

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Ready to varnish


And now, just after July 4th, ready to begin varnishing.

Bulkheads

The bulkheads were fabricated of layers of glass placed over one of the stations, then trimmed and taped in place, with bow and stern as below:

Skeg controller

Finished fabricating the skeg controller last week.  Cut the opening in the deck, then shaped foam to fill the opening and establish the inside form of the box, taped it over and laid up carbon fiber and 4 ounce fiberglass to cover.  Once dried, a quick trim and epoxied into the opening.
I drilled a hole in either end, inserted a plastic plumbing tube as a guide for the stainless steel slide (a tube puchased from Online Metals), and glassed it in place.  If I did this again, I'd probably do it more like a Maroske fitting and remove the tube before glassing in the ends to seal the run.  This would allow me to use a heavier gauge stainless tube, as I would not have to worry about it sliding inside the plastiic plumbing tube.
I used a round metal file to create an opening in the stainless steel tube through which the set screw can engage the cable. 
The knob was fabricated from a laminate of the pine strips used for the boat.