Matariki - a kayak to rowing boat conversion
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The main component of this boat is an existing hull. You make your choice based on the conditions in your locality or more simply whatever you can get your hands on that will work.
It could be a kayak or a Canadian canoe. The latter is not much good in really rough water conditions when rowed). Your chosen hull may or may not have some of the components already fitted and may even be fully decked already. In that case you need to do some diamond saw designing and cut out between cockpits. The object here is to sow the germ of an idea in your brain and let you sort out the details of your finished boat yourself. I had a kevlar hull, a wooden hull may need different treatment. I had two stands strung with lengths of canvas fire hose to support the hull. This enabled the hull to assume any shape I desired. Using 20kg weightlifting weights with down hauls on the ends I could take some of the rocker out. I used a couple of sliding battens at the bulkhead points to control the beam. I then marked out and glassed in forward and aft bulkheads followed by two fore and aft bulkheads. These were filleted and taped to the hull on both sides. I left a bit of excess on top for final shaping down before the deck went on. Next step was to fit the sheer clamps. 20mm by 30mm white pine was used here. The inside of the clamp was routed and planed from the square down to a taper then expoxied, glued and taped into place. I set them about 2mm high to allow for some adjustment of the angle to the decking. |
Doublers were fitted to both sides of the forward and aft bulkheads and a cleat was glued to the outboard faces of the fore and aft bulkheads. |
| Shaping up for fitting the deck. With an extra bulkhead doubler as a guide bevel the tops of the sheer clamps. You will find they are pretty close to being correct except at the bow and stern where you need to fair them down to flat. If you don't do this you end up with a very complex and hard to manage bend in your deck at the ends. The cleat on the longitudinal bulkheads also requires bevelling.If the pile of fine woodshavings you create here does not start you on the journey to becoming a wooden boatbuilder nothing will. |
Fitting the deck. 3mm ply should be adequate for this job. If you give it a sheathing of epoxy and glass even better. In my case the bow and stern deck sections were cut one piece which came over the bulkheads onto the side tanks. It was then just a matter of fitting a piece of ply on either side to complete the job of covering in the tanks. Leave plenty of spare to trim down. I glued and screwed the deck down. There is no reason why you could not use boat nails. I then taped the join. |
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| The brown patches are where I had removed the fittings for a full length rubbing strip which proved unnecessary. There is a silicon carbide impregnated glass panel right along the bottom. I have cleaned up a larger area for the epoxy patches over the holes. The rest of the holes are from me experimenting with different fittings. I sometimes sit on the stern deck inside the coaming with a single bladed paddle. A compass mounts there on longer trips. The prototype steering footplate will be explained later on. |
Although you don't really need that coaming it looks nice and one day a cover will fit on here when the boat gets her double sea kayak fit out. Using strips of aluminium I temporarily attached the coaming and then bent it outwards to a nice angle. The bow end was then marked and cut insitu. At the stern I fitted in a rounded piece moulded separately. I epoxy glued. Fired, filleted and taped the assembly in place. An hour with the plane and Mk I eyeball produced a nice sweeping profile that complemented the sheer. |
Part 1 Concept Part 2 Design Basics Part 3 Rowing Rig Part 4 The Steering Rig Part 5