DK13 Kayak

[dk13]

Looking for feedback on building the dk13 kayak plans for which appeared in may/june 1986 issue of WB specifically on the attachment of the hull panels to the keelson. :confused: :mad:

[Tomcat]

I remeber the boat, DK wrote a book by the way, though possibly it covers canoes only, though in UK that includes everything.

As I remeber, there was a lumber piece down the middle, that petered out towards the ends.

What is the question?

[CharlieSanti]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid46/pb1266b54f22e3325ea26972fb91e8a50/fccc4c27.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid46/p6a4d2e08123fb8d4246840d6e54e2fd9/fccc4c19.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid49/pa398f6da15df3d6de7cbd69bfac77371/fcb4d014.jpg
This is my DK13 so far. My winter project bottom color now applied just cockpit and varnish to go will post more photos when finished. As to the keelson I cut the piece of 1x cedar per the plans and epoxied it to the panels before attempting to stich up shape. Charlie

[Lazy Jack]

I built one of these years ago. The keeslon was the hardest part of the whole project. I subsequently built a "Yare" or a derivative thereof which is basicly the same construction. This design, however, omitted the wooden keelson and was much easier to build. The two halves of the hull section were stitched together along the length where the keelson would be and the seam glassed on the inside with a couple layers of 4 inch 6 oz tape along the seam. A couple of 3/4 inch blocks were placed under the ouside (sheer) edge of the side panels so that the two sides met at the center in a very shallow V. After the fiberglass 'keelson' had set up hard, the to halves were flipped over and the outside glassed along the seam over the lenght of the inner keelson.(This bears the tension as the ends are brought together) After the outer tape was hard, the ends were stitched together and taped just like the DK-13. The rest of the construction was exactly the same. It was much much simpler and I feel just as strong as the wooden keelson. My boat is 10 years old and I still use it.

[ 04-12-2003, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: Lazy Jack ]

[Andrew]

I built one of these several years ago. Working single handed, I had to come up with a trick or two. Nailing the two halve of the hull to the keelson is easy where they a straight but when they start to curve toward the ends, it helps to bend the keelson. I did this by scewing heavy screw eys into the ends of the inside of keelson. I ground or cut of the pointy ends where they came through the bottom of the keelson. With the hull supported on a narrow table, I strung a rope under the table and through the eyes. This allowed me to step on the rope to bend the keelson. I used a 2x4 in place like an arrow to maintain the tension. Instead of using copper wire to hold the hull halves together, I drilled small holes along the seam and used heavy monofilament to "sew" them together. By pulling the monofilament like a shoelace, it was fairly easy to pull the sides together by myself. After applying the epoxy fillet and glass to the inside, cut and pullout the monofilament or just cut it flush to the hull. Remove the screw eyes and fill the holes with gouge or dowels. Hope this helps.