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Summer Journal 2004 – Canoeing the Namekagon, St. Croix, and Mississippi Rivers.
By Bill Collett, Bettendorf, Iowa August 3, 2004 Pre trip plans hardly exist. I intend to solo paddle the designated National Scenic River Way of the Namekagon River. It is uncertain if I will paddle beyond that or not. All I know is that my wife and daughter are visiting relatives and friends in Duluth for a week and they can drop me off on the Namekagon. The option exists for them to pick me up on the way home, or if I am feeling good, they are to go home and I will continue to paddle. I’m operating under the axiom, when packing for a solo trip, weird and…
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Boundary Waters Solo, September 2004
September 19th, Sunday Portaged into the Boundary Waters today using the 320-rod Skipper/Portage Lake entry point. Because I double portaged it, total 15,390 feet of hiking. Now that’s a long portage. The leaves on the portage were turning colors as most of them were younger bushes and trees; the tallest pines and birch were all blown down and charred from a burn. The trail itself was being closed in by a tremendous amount of growth energized by an open canopy that allowed the sun to beat down. About a third of the way across I passed moose tracks, and about half of the way across I crossed an old road.…
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The Simplest of Seats
Considering how restricted the seating actually is in the average cruising kayak, it’d better be comfortable. Hours of being jammed in an uncomfortable cockpit is no one’s idea of fun – cramped muscles, hard-spot aches, and that pins-and-needles feeling in the legs just purely takes the fun out of a day on the water. For better or for worse, commercial kayaks come with one sort of seat or another, but those of us who build our own have to come up with some alternative that’s comfortable. If you’re up for it, you can certainly carve yourself a fine mini-cell seat, and there’s lots of nice carved mini-cell and/or gel seats…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit
In the Fall of 2007, I set out to build a new kayak to serve several goals: Build a kayak that fits Ilena, my significant other, better than my Romany. Build a kayak that would be a Greenland style hard chined boat that is as easy or easier to roll than my Romany. Try several ideas for a kayak build that I haven’t tried yet. Glass hatch recesses. Glass fitting recesses. Dyeing the wood. And a few other. Generally to improve my building and glassing abilities during a quick build. Reproduce a historic kayak in cedar strip construction. Build another day boat with a different feel than my Romany and…
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Building the Ken Taylor Igdlorssuit Kayak
Gathering Supplies (2:30 Hours) The biggest show stopper for most new kayak and canoe builders is the gathering supply step. Having to decide exactly what materials to buy, where to find the best deal, and how to get everything together in the same location at the right time is complicated. For this kayak, I’m using left over glass from RAKA. I’m using 6 ounce E-glass on the outside and 5 ounce tight-weave E-glass on the inside. The open weave 6 ounce will wet-out more clearly than the tight weave. The epoxy is from US Composites. The dye is from Solar-Lux via Woodcraft.com. It is Blood Red. I’m using KajakSport hatches,…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit – Part Three
Fair Inside (4 Hours) After the kayak is lifted off the forms, it’s time to fair the inside. This kayak is mainly flat on the inside, so fair is easily accomplished using a block plane, hobbyist plane, and a flat surform tool. A Convex surform can be used on the concave sections of the hull. The key point to watch for while using these tools, is use them only to take of the high edges of the strips. After the edges are taken off, change over to sand paper. A rough grit like 40 or 60 will quickly smooth the surface. This can be finished off up to 80 grit…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit – Part Four
Cockpit Coaming (8 Hours) There are many methods of building a cockpit coaming and making a carbon fiber coaming is certainly one of the hardest, but it is an achievable project for the home builder. I like to build mine in four steps. The first step is to make the foam mold that will be used to produce the coaming. Make sure that your opening is sanded smoothly and looks fair. Check this fairing with the cockpit cutout template used to make the recess. Any type of foam can be used to form a coaming, but I used expanding spray foam, because it was what I could get in town.…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit – Part Five
Control Box – 1 Hours The control box for the skeg is built much the same way as the deck fittings. A four and a half inch slot is cut into the hull. It’s located near the center of the coaming. A foam mold is inserted into the slot and covered with paste wax and mold release. Then thickened epoxy is used to round the corners and 5 layers of 3.2 ounce tight weave glass is used to lay-up the control box. After the box is finished, drill a hole to insert the tubing. I covered the hull around the skeg control box with packing tape, so I would be…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak-the Igdlorssuit – Launching
Wetting the kayak in the crystal clear water of Lake Superior was the best reward for almost a year of building. Ilena and I launched the Iggy with little fanfare. John Amren, owner of Superior Coastal Sports in Grand Marais was the only other attendee, and he was there because we choose the beach behind his shop as our point of departure for a tour around the Grand Marais harbor. The Iggy is a semi-replica of the 1959 Ken Taylor kayak that spawned the Anas Acuta and spurred modern British recreational kayaking. The original Iggy was built as a skin-on-frame in Igdlorssuit (Illorsuit is the new spelling) by Emanuele Korneiliussen.…
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Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit – Launching – Susie Islands
The second trip with the Iggy involved a trip from Grand Portage, out to the Susie Island and then to the border.
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How to Make a Fiberglass Skeg
A skeg is an effective tool that can help control a kayak in difficult conditions. In quartering wind and waves, it can be a godsend. For the average backyard builder, commercial skegs tend to be expensive and most backyard builders will have the skills to fabricate their own. When looking at skeg options, I’ve never been able to find a wooden one that satisfied my sense of durability and simplicity. So, I set out to make a fiberglass skeg that would work well in a wooden kayak. Below you’ll find the steps that I took. Come up with the size and shape of the skeg that you want to build.…
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2007 Meet at the Beach – Minnesota
Join us for Minnesota’s first wooden boat Meet at the Beach. The event will occur on Lutsen Resort’s beautiful beach the weekend of June 16-17. All wooden kayak and canoe builders are welcome to bring their boats to show off and let others paddle them in the waters of Lake Superior. Every type of wooden construction is welcome from Stitch and Glue, cedar strip, skin-on-frame, and everything in between. And the event is open to the public.
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Building a Kayak Paddle – A La Volkskayak
Many thanks to VOLKSKAYAK designer Gerry Gladwin for allowing me to share his idea and the diagram with others who want to do it for themselves. I hope the instructions below will be helpful in making a simple, light, cheap sea kayak paddle that’s very serviceable. We’ve been using three of these for several seasons now, and apart from some cosmetic damage, have had no problems with them. The cost is under $25 per paddle. I can get one done to the “finished with the epoxy work” stage with about a day’s work. Our paddles weigh a little under a kilogram; mine’s 950gms., while the one my wife made for…
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Nessmuking and Stitch and Glue Boat Building
Eskimo Tom Gerds, professional wooden boat builder and owner of Finewoodwatercraft.com, writes about using stitch and glue boat building techniques to create canoes and kayaks that Nessmuk would have been proud to paddle. Learn about his lightweight building secrets as he presents a great overview to the S&G process.
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A Paddle with a Twist: Making a Feathered Kayak Paddle
The main problem homebuilders face when trying to build a feathered kayak paddle is how to make the feather. Most builders either buy an adjustable ferrule that allows several different angles of feathering for the paddle or they build a scarfing jig that allows them to cut the shaft at an angle to give the proper feather and later they glue the two pieces together. The third method, which is the one that I like, involves twisting a multiple laminates to the feathered angle and holding them in place on a building form while the glue dries. This article describes the third method. Choosing Materials Materials Needed: The laminates for…
