This is my second boat, but the first time I've done it solo. In 2009 I built a Greenland kayak in an excellent workshop run by Turner Wilson. I am using Wolfgang Brink's "The Aleutian Kayak" for guidelines (though I've modified the dimensions and some other details). Brink assumes you have done this before and understand details like lashing and how to cut mortises. I am using notes from the first boat plus Christopher Cunningham's "Building the Greenland Kayak" for construction details. There are still places where I have to sit and think for a while.
A kayak is built "upside down" from other kinds of boats. Instead of laying the keel and putting in ribs and planking it up, you start a kayak from the gunwales, then place deck beams to shape the deck and then ribs to define the shape of the hull. Finally, you lay strips over the ribs to define the keel and hold the skin off the ribs.
I am using Douglas fir for the gunwales (because I could get an 18' clean board), cedar for the deck beams (light and strong) and a section from a neighbor's oak tree for the ribs (strong and green so it will bend).
So the first step is to rip one long piece in two so the gunwales are perfectly symmetrical. An 18' board is tough to rip in a 32 foot basement - lacking 4 feet. However, with the door to the bulkhead open and starting the board on the stairs, there is just room.
View from the stairs in the bulkhead. You can just see the table saw in the middle and several sheets of plywood on the far side.
The next step is to cut spacers to define the hull shape and check that both gunwales are symmetrical (yes!).
Before it all goes together, the gunwales need mortises for the ribs and mortises for the deck beams. I'm building an 18' boat but I have instructions for a 16' one. Before I could start mortising, I had to do some figuring.
In particular, I wanted to be sure I could actually get into this boat. So I did a rough mockup of the cockpit by stacking 2x4's on the floor and putting cross pieces for where the back of the cockpit coaming and the bottom of the first deck beam were going to go and tried to slide into it. Yup, as I suspected, I didn't fit. Some futzing about and I found that if I add an inch in depth and make the cockpit 24" long then I can slide in. I'd hoped that I could use the same spray-skirt as on the Greenland skin-on-frame, but no. The Greenland cockpit coaming slants up as it goes forward, which makes it easier to get into and allows it to be shorter than the baidarka cockpit, which is level.
Given all that, now I could place the 8 deck beams and from there figure where the 33 ribs were going. Lots of careful measuring and marking and I was ready to drill mortises.
Jigs and a router help a lot with getting each mortise in exactly the right place, shape, and size.
In the end there's still some hand work. The first deck beams to go in are the bow and stern blocks These are marked and cut to fit all the angles, and then carved out to lighten them.
Ooh, pretty curls!
Finished off with a round file and sandpaper.
It fits! Next is to fix it in place with pegs. In the mean time, working on ribs. Green (bendable) oak (strong!) makes excellent ribs. My neighbor put in a new driveway and donated a section of an oak tree that was in the way.
I used a chain saw to rough-cut a nice section. Cutting it into boards requires a flat side. Some quality time with a plane and a straight flat reference board provides that.
Then put it through the band saw to cut a slice. That oak is hard - lean on it enough to cut but not enough to stall the saw and spend a long time watch it inch slowly forward.
Then cut the slice into strips the thickness of ribs. I need 33 ribs, plus a few extra in case some break during bending. So far I've put in many hours and cut blanks for 28...
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