Day 20 & 21 - Top Deck

Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of work on the kayak. I took off the support pieces that held the hull stable while I built it, and installed the frames for the upper deck. Next, I put on the two deck pieces and wired them loosely together. This was somewhat difficult with just one person. The pieces were pretty gangly. I used a piece of 1x2 board, and made an impromptu spreader bar. Worked pretty good, and was much easier than finding my son to help.

The next thing to do was to install the last of the deck pieces. These were wired together loosely first, then I had to go back and twist all the wires tight, keeping the deck panels aligned.

I used strapping tape to temporary secure and line up the hull with the deck. After a few adjustments to the boat, I glued it up. First with clear resin, then 40 minutes later with some thickened resin to fill the minor gaps in the panels. This picture shows the deck taped on, wires in place, and the resin just after it was applied. Just after this picture, I went through with a putty knife to scrape off as much excess dripping as I could. It'll save later on sanding.

Sunday morning. I removed the wires from the deck and popped the deck off the hull. There were a few areas where the resin dripped down and glued the two together. I needed to work on the bottom side of the deck, so I needed to get the hull out of the way. The pulley system worked pretty well.

The last thing I did on Sunday was to add some additional resin to all the joints, then fillet the reinforcing plates that I earlier put on the bottom side of the deck. This will help the cloth go over. The resin I mixed up was very thick. I've got the angled portion supported, so nothing sags. After this has a bit more cure on it, I'll probably set it on top of the hull to keep the alignment.