Finished finishing the hull. Will epoxy tomorrow and glue the deck panels in the morning. Hope to CF the hull on Wednesday.
CF means carbon fiber. What I am going to do this week will upset some people. The kayak I am building is a kit. Coho. It is a very successful design. You see these boats all over the country, especially around here. Hundreds, maybe thousands, have been built. All of them are hand-made and the owners spent a lot of time making them just so. The wood panels are expensive and are painstakingly cut and sorted so that the grain is perfect even after the (ugly) build process. The result is most often a beautiful boat, but somewhat marred by the wiring holes. I speak from some experience because I built their wherry a few years ago.
My plan is to put black carbon fiber on the hull but spend extra time on the deck to make it holeless and with deeper color to pop the grain. A few mag ads and this guy got me interested in the new/old contrast: http://www.bluestempaddler.com/
