new night heron hybrid

Builder's Forum
1

Putting the finishing touches on the night heron hybrid rescue boat i built with my newphew over the summer holiday.

it's a rescue becuase it was fabricated from a kit that i picked up early this year from a gentlemen who bought it from CLC in 2010....he had glued up some of the stitch and glue hull....and then said 'i had enough' and there it sat until his wife asked him to clean up the garage.

it turned into a project with my nephew when his college plans got kaibashed due to covid and his mother said do something useful.....to which he replied  'wanta build a boat' to which his mother replied, "here's your uncle's phone number."

anyway, picture is below.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOhm0ErK_yaxyHkfGidUkJRW8y_6QR6-v0Y7M1PYTBB1YgBEvSZINtbGfVmcDb9sg/photo/AF1QipOY-nIN8vNiPgX49kPWHRBAy1Rvg91iH2-DY-B0?key=ZnBDNS0ySjJkUlFHZ2d5RmNGWWtqUWhyUzkzVlZn

i do want to say that it pretty interesting taking somebody through the building process.  you forget how much you learned and don't realize it until you work with somebody who hasn't.   anyway, hats off to my newphew Gabe for a job well done and surviving his uncle.

some particulars on the build.  sea green brightside polyurethane hull, mahogony stained western red cedar deck with a whie cedar accent and five coats of varnish, CLC flush hatch system, custom skeg and skeg box built out of carbon fibre over cedar core with the control box nd wire and tubing provided by Nash Boatworks (formerly superior kayaks),  seat by redfish kayaks.   integrated delrin rubstrips so the rubstrip is not proud of the hull...but smooth with the hull surface.  was able to do that because the hull was painted so was able to fare in the rubstrip with micro-balloons. total weight about 43 lbs.   we will be putting full perimeter lines and some other rigging on the hull...but they were not done prior to the picture.

anyway....it's a good solid effort.   now onto the next build:)

h

 

 

2

She's absolutely gorgeous!  Lovely color on the hull.  

3

   very, very nice!

4

Looks beautiful. I am interested in your choice of the custom skeg.  Was this based on your experience paddling the same boat without the skeg?  I was under the impression that the Hybrid tracks pretty well.  

 

Thanks

5

Olywa, 

Thanks for the question.  

The night heron hybrid does track very well without a skeg.  i have both the hybrid version of the night heron as well as a full strip version and you notice the difference in tracking immediately.

that said, if the wind is coming from a particular direction combined with a particular sea state, and i am trying to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 degrees off the wind and i want the minimum amount of work, i find that i may end up putting a bit of skeg down to trim the boat.

i have built a lot of boats and i like having the skeg as part of my builds and its  just a lot easier to install them before the boat is complete vs putting them in afterwards.  becuase i have done it a lot, i custom build my skegs so there is little cost other than my time....so i just installed it as a natural part of building.

but you could do this boat without a skeg and it would track well. and you could also make it part of the process, and other than some additional time and expense, you will probably never regret having that option to put some skeg down when you need it. 

i hope that helps.

h

 

6

Thanks,  that is perfect.  I see no reason not to go for the keg option after that explanation

7

Thanks,  that is perfect.  I see no reason not to go for the keg option after that explanation