I'm just starting this project, building from the plans only, no kit. To prep for it, I read the instruction manual a few times, and watched the CLC Youtube video "Building a Shearwater Kayak" a couple of times. in the video, the builder installs a sheer clamp, but in the instruction manual there is no mention of a sheer clamp. I'm thinking the sheer clamp is required. Any one have any recommendation on a dimension for this piece of pine? 1" x 3/4" would work, I think.
Thanks
Nick,
Summer has slowed my SW17 biuld to a halt - I am opposed to my basement in the nice weather.
The Shearwaters dont use a shear clamp. if you read the part about attaching the assembled deck and hull, you will see that they are wired together and tacked with htickened epoxy. the wires are then puled out and the joint is filleted and than fiberglass taped. this operation is messy and imprecise, but very easy once you have done it. I made sleeve protectors out of pastic bags and some duct tape.
Enjoy your build,
Joel
Thank you, Joel. I have seen other stitch and glue videos where there is no shear clamp…actually now that I think about it, the CLC video is the only one that does have it.
Interesting. I installed the shear clamps included in the kit on my Shearwater Sport Hybrid as indicated in the instructions. Were they necessary due to the hybrid stripped deck?
Can't speak for the hybrid design, but didn't use shear clamps on a regular decked version. Great design. Have fun building and paddling when you're done. JRC
Marking out the cut lines
Lines marked and drawn out.....came together much easier than i thought it would
Cutting out with jigsaw
Some parts cut
All the parts
Gluing the butt joints
Dont know if anyone noticed, but I made some glaring mistakes in my butt joints....glued the sheer panels bow to bow and stern to stern. Genius! No problem ...they cut apart easily enough. Heres the cured joints.
Of all the tasks so far, the planing of the edges was the most difficult. I had a very hard time judging the correct angles, and all of them were off. This will not be a problem though...in the dry fit the joints met well, and some filling in wth thickened epoxy will fix the issue.
Having wired the hull panels, here we are installing the bulkhads and temporary forms.
Wiring on side panels.
More side panel wiring......note concentration of boat builders!
Deck is wired and just sitting on top of the hull ....very pleased with the way things fit at this point.
Summary to date:
So far we have about 60 total man-hours in the project. This would include about 20 hrs. for marking and cutting out, and probably another 10 hrs. attributable to being first time builders, and correcting mistakes.
I am surprised at how easy it actually is to work with. A reasonable degree of accuracy is required in the cutting out, and some patience is required with the wiring to avoid curse words.
We are ready to align the hull and deck end to end, and spot weld the seams.
Looking great. I love that this seems to be a group project. I seem to be alone in the basement whenever I am working on a kayak,
Ed