DIY Spray Skirt, September 2009

I built my boat to catch ocean waves and run with them.  For that it's wonderful.  It's long and sleek, with vertical blades for bow and stern so it tracks straight and fast.  However, if you want it to turn, you have to lean it over so the shape in the water is asymmetrical and the bow and stern are flatter to the water with less grip.  Given the low freeboard, that also buries the cockpit coaming under water so a spray skirt or tuilik is required or the boat would fill with water.  In waves, with my low deck, I need something to keep the water from washing into the cockpit.  And, of course, for rolling I need a water-tight seal on the cockpit.

My tuilik (which is like a neoprene hooded sweatshirt that connects to the cockpit coaming) is too warm for most of the paddling season.  I go heat-stroke working back against the tide in Narraganset Bay.  It took a long time because I kept losing ground when I lay down in the water to cool off.

 


My son, Bob, wearing a tuilik.

The solution is a "spray skirt".  This is a truncated cone that seals to your cockpit coaming and comes in to seal against your chest.  That leaves the rest of your upper body out in the air to keep cool.

I spent last weekend (and a few eves this week) making a spray skirt and then my son Bob came over and we built one for him (which went much faster and I got to take pictures). 

I started with Kayakgrrl's Akuilisaq pattern http://kayakgrrl.livejournal.com/4194.html which turns out to be inaccurate.  Luckily I made a pattern first with sewing pattern paper.  After lots of stewing and futzing I got a good result.  Basically, the spray skirt is a tunnel that carries the line of the coaming up high enough to keep the water out, while being flexible so you can ride easily with the waves, lean to turn, and bend to roll. 

I chose bright orange neoprene to provide some visibility.  My black boat that's only a few inches out of water is great for snaking up on wildlife for taking pictures, but doesn't get noticed by oncoming powerboats.






Measuring to get the height.  You need to be able to lean forward (and back) for rolling.



A rotary fabric cutter is ideal for cutting neoprene (there's a sheet of 1/4 plywood underneath there, we're not cutting right on the floor!).


The base of the skirt has raw neoprene (no cloth covering) folded over a bungee cord to seal to the cockpit coaming.  You can get the neoprene from http://www.qajaqusa.org/QUSA/merchandise_online.php

The top of the spray skirt comes up almost to the armpits.  We added pads of neoprene in the center of the back to keep water from running down the spine (ooh that's chilly).

The glue for the seams came from a local dive shop.  They were very helpful, if a bit puzzled by what I was trying to do.  After the spray skirt was complete I took it (and the boat) down so they could see what I had been talking about!