Hello,
I’m looking to help someone finish a Shearwater hybrid. That person does not have all of the faculties that they had when starting the boat years ago. They got stuck at a difficult spot in the deck stripping and ended up not getting back to the job. We would really like to help him finish this last boat which will really stand out from the solid deck Chesapeake-17s he (and I) have done before. He can work with me on the typical assembly and finishing steps (sanding, sanding, sanding!), but he’s not going to figure out how to piece these last strips together.
I’ve seen other posts which recommend Nick Schade’s books on strip building and discuss strip planning and some techniques. I’m not sure if the steps he’s taken up until now have left us with an extra difficult alignment problem to adjust all in one area. We may be past the point where these books might help us avoid where we are.
Due to the 3D nature of the decks, the strips at the side of the cockpit are not terribly close in edge alignment AND they have a pretty decent angular offset as well:
We’ve set a piece in and clamped it for reference. If we extend the front pattern past the cockpit, there will be a couple of issues:
- There’s a bit of a gap between this strip and the cockpit coaming, both fore and aft.
- This strip does not meet up well with the last rear strip. There’s really too much of a gap between them towards the front.
- This strip has a significant angular difference relative to the last aft deck piece.
- Finally, there is a small gap between this piece and the already set dark strip towards the outside. It would be difficult to create such a narrow strip to fill this gap. I’m guessing that we need to “split the difference” and make two strips of reduced thickness.
If we extend the rear pattern up past the cockpit, it will require some deep cutting for the cockpit and then won’t line up with the last piece from the front.
Do any of you with experience with strip kayaks have any guidance or suggestions for us? How bad of a mess are we in?
Also note the alternating light/dark on the front deck. The rear deck is light colored strips with a central dark band. There’s also the light/dark of the perimeter edge above the shearclamp. Going by the front pattern, it looks like the strip that we’ve clamped in place should be a darker wood. However, since it looks like it will continue to the rear, maybe this means that the alternating color scheme should end and this piece be made in the lighter color?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and time.
Andy