A SOF Kid;s Kayak

[AnalogKid]

At the end of October my son and I went on his year 6 (end of primary) school camp. He did a bunch of different activities which included sailing in an Optimist and kayaking in a heavy 2.9m roto-moulded Perception.

Once back home he told m ehow he really enjoyed the kayaking and sailing and how he wished he had his own kayak. That gave me just he excuse I needed to build a skin-on-frame boat for him. I've been reading about various SOF builds on the forum and wanted to give ita try. I had to get a bit of landscaping work out of the way, and I was expecting progress to be slow because I wanted my son to join in wherever possible, partly to pick up some skills and partly to get the sense of achievement of at least having contributed to the build.

The design I chose was theSeaFlea by Tom Yost. It's a small kayak, slim as well as short with a maximum capacity of 50Kg, nearly 20 more than my son weighs, so a bit of room for growth whilst providing a boat he can easily manoeuvre both on the water and on land.

The plans are free and that fitted with the idea of a fairly quick and cheap build, this is after all aboat that will be grown out of fairly quickly, it doesn't have to last even 5 years, 2 will do I'm sure.

The yostwerks website callsfor 3/4” stringers and 1/2” ply frames. I had some 9mm (~3/8”) meranti marineply leftover from previous builds, so decided to double that and reduce the depth of the frames to keep the weight down. For the stringers, I bought 2.4m (8') lengths of radiata pine clears, 18mm square (pretty close to 3/4”). Not the ideal material but all I could find to keep in the 'cheap-and-cheerful' theme. The cockpit coaming will be laminated from some small strips of 4mm meranti I have to make the deck of a double S&T kayak, while the rubbing strips that will cover the staples will be from some remu (NZ red pine) doorframes I have stored in the basement.

[AnalogKid]

Thebuilding instructions in general are pretty good, but the plans for each boaton the yostwerks site consists of a simple diagram showing the dimensions ofthe frames, a table of offsets for the same and some other details like framespacing and cockpit profile. The offsets are in a rather confusing measurementof decimal feet. I plugged them into a spreadsheet to get a metric conversion,which I read out while my son plotted onto some A3 paper.



Aftermarking out on the ply by pricking points through with an awl I tried my sonout with the jigsaw. This was a step too far, he was too nervous of the tool tobe safe, so I took over. He did help with the sandwiching of the pairs of roughframes and the cleaning up of the edges though. In the evening while he was inbed I scarfed the radiata lengths into a collection of pieces approximately 12'long. Again he helped sand these, then in the evenings I applied varnish(because of the radiata's zero rot resistance, I thought it would be good tolimit the moisture intake).

[AnalogKid]

There was a bit of a hiatus at this point. By chance I was working from home one Friday afternoon when the phone went. I knew it wasn’t good when I heard my mum on the line; it was 4 AM where she was. My dad lost his battle with prostate cancer and although I knew this was coming (it was a very one-sided battle), no one really expected it for another few months at least.

Apart from the obvious distraction my dad’s passing caused, it is relevant to the build because of the things that my father passed on to me. He was always a DIY type. I grew up watching him build furniture, then help him with some projects, usually holding stuff. He watched over while I undertook my first rudimentary projects, and in later life we worked together on each other’s projects. When I got a place of my own he saw it as a golden opportunity, a blank canvas of home improvement projects.

When I moved to New Zealand with my partner and my son, we moved from the midlands - 100 miles from the sea, to a beach side house 200 metres from a boat ramp. When I wanted a kayak to paddle, building my own was the obvious solution, and that’s because of my dad.

[AnalogKid]

Eventually we were ready to start putting the pieces together. I thought using the railing to the back deck as a strongback would be a good way to save having to buy timber that wasn’t even going to make it into the boat. In the end the number of clams required made this a bad idea. Also, I needed to turn over the whole assembly to put the temporary screws in the other side. I ended up rebuilding the whole assembly on a piece of decking timber that was long enough to mount the four transverse frames on. All was looking good until I took it off the strongback and all the rocker disappeared as the stringers sprung back.







This was all very frustrating, and my head still wasn’t in a very good place. The whole project nearly became firewood, but I decided to ask for help on the forum, and Dave Gentry put me back on the right track. I hung the two recalcitrant chine stringers from the garage ceiling by their ends and hung a bucket full of wood scraps from their centre. They spent a week like this in very humid conditions, and were far more compliant for it.

[AnalogKid]

Once everything was properly aligned, I replaced the temporary screws with 6mm dowels epoxied into place. With everything glued in place I got my son to try the boat for size.



Disaster. Despite having mocked up the cockpit and no.2 frame to make sure he would fit, in the real boat he could not squeeze his knees through the frame. A bit of surgery was required.



I sawed off the top of the frame and made a new piece to sit higher from pices of pine joined to each other and the stumps of the original frame with 4mm meranti ply gussets on either side. When I added the forward deck beams and the cockpit frame I was quite pleased with the profile, even if it was a big departure from Tom Yost’s plans.



All the frame joints were lashed, another job I had to do by myself. I fashioned some floorboards out of some ply slats left over from a now-discarded sofa-bed. The aluminium brackets are more or less in line with the plans, but took quite a bit of work. Eventually my son could help again and we spent an hour or so bolting in the floorboards together.

[AnalogKid]

I'm now at the mercy of some really rubbish summer weather. Most of the build has taken place outside, and the skinning and painting will have to be one outside also. This picture of my garage reveals why.



Still to do:

• Skin the kayak (12oz cotton duck canvas purchased)
• Painting
• Fashion some rub-rails from old rimu door frames
• Fashion a cockpit coaming from 4mm ply
• Varnish the paddle

[Mark Reuten]

Very interesting! Now your main problem as I see it someone went and parked a bunch of junk with wheels in your boatshop. Now if I were in your position I would insist that the thoughtless twit move that rubbish out out onto the road where it belongs so you can get on with your boatbuilding.
I have a similar problem with a washer, dryer and furnace cluttering up my boatshop. You have my sympathies.

[DGentry]

Nice job. Sorry about your Dad (see my "Tonight" thread in the bilge).
Sitting on the aft edge of the coaming, or the back deck, and sliding your feet into the hull before sitting down is how one gets in and out of kayaks with low masiks. Your adaptation looks nice, though, and modifying a kayak's deck is rarely an issue.
Glad it is all working out nicely! I'm sure your son is excited about it. Remember that you can easily paint designs on the hull - kids seem to like that (or I could be projecting!).

Looking forward to seeing the finished product - Dave

[AnalogKid]

I saw the tonight thread Dave, and couldn't really think what to add. Hopefully you're getting to the point where the good memories are coming to the fore. The weekend I found out I was just numb, and unfortunately there was no way I could get to the other side of the planet for the funeral. On the other hand, I went back home at Easter and said a proper goodbye to the man, my mum and my sister didn't get to do that.

Don't hold your breath for the kayak to be finished, the in-laws are over for 6 weeks and we are going away next week to the Bay of Islands. On top of that there is no let up in the bad weather, although I've still managed to get to the beach for a swim every evening this week. It's nice to know that my modifications didn't cause you to take a sharp intake of breath though.

[AnalogKid]

So, summer has finally showed up around here. On Tuesday evening I got the kayak out and put its bottom skin of 12oz cotton duck canvas on with 1/2" stainless staples.



I also trimmed a couple of pieces of 5" thick expanded polystyrene and lashed them into the ends. This is in the hope that they'll provide enough flotation to allow bailing of a swamped kayak to make it easier to tow to shore. This thing is way to narrow to attempt a wet entry.



Last night I got the stapler out again and put the deck on. In all there is about 750 staples in the boat. My son and I finished up by wetting the canvas out with a sponge and it's now drying out nich and tight ready for paint. Before the paint goes on I'll laminate the cockpit coaming, and then while the paint dries I'll scarf and shape the rub rails. I'm pretty happy with how the boat looks so far, and I was having trouble keeping the lad out of it, which is a good sign.



Andy.

[DGentry]

Bravo

[doyle007]

Great looking build. I would like to do something similar for my 9 y.o. daughter this spring. I am thinking of Dave's RUTH SOF Wherry for myself, and something along the lines of what you did for the kid. My wife will get my plastic Tarpon 120 to tool around in if the feeling should hit her.

[AnalogKid]

We just spent the afternoon at the beach and the neighbour's kids came over on their plastic sit-on-top kayaks. They cost $280 a piece (the SOF SeaFlea will come in at around $150) but the near indestructibility and the fact you can go o the shop in the morning and go paddling in the afternoon makes the project seem like a bit of a waste of time. I've generally enjoyed the process though, and spent some quality time in the shop with my son. With a bit of luck his lightweight 12' boat will outperform the 8' plastics and make the effort and the wait more worthwhile.

My attempt at recycling some remu door frames into outer gunwales failed. The thin trim pieces I hoped to use were too brittle and split when I pulled the nails and the main stiles need to much work (I've no planer or table saw to help dimension the timber). So I went back to the DIY store and bought 8m of 30x10mm rimu which is scarfed up ready to trim to shape. I also laminated the cockpit coaming, just a bit of sanding to round off the edges. Then its varnish and paint time.

[Breakaway]

Oh Man. I gotta build two of these, or two like it for my two girls. I hear ya on the buy it now thing..but: that boat is sweet, I'm sure it will outperform the shorter ones, and your kids will be "cooler" in them (because they have cooler dad).

Way to go.

Kevin

[AnalogKid]

Well the weather has been making this build a painful exercise. We came back from camping on the long Waitangi weekend with a wet tent so I out it up on the back lawn thinking it would make a fine paint shop, All was going well for the first two coats and then a storm came through and snapped one of the tent poles, so down it came and I had to resort to pulling the boat out of the garage, putting on a quick coat and then pushing it back in again before the rain-drops pitted the paint,

This was made more difficult by the various bits of trim littered around the garage with drying varnish, Anyway, eventually we got close enough, with the last coat of white going on last Friday. A big storm came through on Saturday and then Sunday was calm, so I tried to get a spray coat of blue on before the wind picked up. Unfortunately all my masking tape refused to stick to the fresh enamel, so by the time we got back from the shops with rolls of duct tape the wind had indeed picked up. It meant I had to hold the spray cans a little too close to get the smooth tonal effect I was after, Sam is happy with it though, and I guess he's the customer.

During the week I got the running strips and cockpit coaming screwed on and I fitted some hardware to the stem ends to tidy the fabric edges and provide somewhere to put a toggle. I'm away in Melbourne for most of next week, and more rain is predicted for tomorrow, so it was time to splash.

[AnalogKid]

So the final design is white on the bottom (household oil-based enamel, 3 coats) and tonal blue top sides (oil-based polyeurathane enamel spray paint) with varnished remu (NZ red pine) running strips and varnished meranti ply cockpit coamings. The stem hardware is pieces of aluminium angle left over from the seat brackets, cut flat and bent to shape, while the bow eye is a marine stainless fitting from the hardware shop. All fittings are held on with No.6 3/4" stainless screws. The design on the fore-deck is based on a Hawaiian tiki image we found online, modified a little to work as more or less a line drawing. I applied it to the boat with waterproof permanent marker pen.

Pre-launch...





Initially Sam was a little tentative paddling in a kayak much narrower than the plastic outdoor centre models he is used to




But he soon got the hang of the secondary stability.



All in all a very successful launch, and no leaks. I need to finish Sam's paddle (he used mine today) with more varnish and build the beach trolley, then we can go on a paddle together, venturing into the next bay or two.

[AnalogKid]

Had trouble uploading the Tiki design as an avatar, so here's a slightly bigger version:

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

You might consider making the new paddle in two halves, joined with sliding-fit brass ferrules -- it makes for easier stowing inside when travelling, and also means you can use one half as a canadian paddle in narrow creeks where there's room for the kayak and not much else. (A screw-and-notch makes aligning the two pieces for feathering simple.)

Good work all round -- and the little bloke sure looks mighty pleased with himself.

Mike

[DGentry]

Congrats! Make him a Greenland paddle now!

[JayInOz]

Nicely done Sir! May I suggest that you now begin to consider the next build? My boy stayed that size for about a minute and a half and then grew like a weed JayInOz

[AnalogKid]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Dave, I've been thinking about a Greenland paddle for myself, but it probably makes more sense for Sam. He's fine with a feathered paddle but its more a case of the smaller bladed area being harder to catch a crab on a clumsy stroke and tip him over. I've seen a plan for one involving a 4x2 and a lot of planing - seems do-able.

Mike, not sure about the two-part paddle thing. I've tried a small plastic dinghy oar as a single paddle and the low seating position in a kayak makes it less than ideal. Transport is not really an issue since we're only a short walk from the beach and we will trolley the kayaks down with the paddles tucked in the cockpits. If we take the kayaks away then it'll involve a roof rack anyway, so again, the paddles are not really a problem.

Jay, I hear what you're saying. Part of me wants him to put on some big inches and pounds this year because I'm also his rugby coach. If he gets a couple of years out of this boat I'll be happy, and hopefully he'll be a little more useful when it comes to making it's replacement. I'm pleased that he really appreciates the fine lines of his SeaFlea and thinks it superior to the plastic fantastic kayaks that are ubiquitous round these parts, I just hope he still thinks that way when a new build is on the cards.

[Rayjing]

That is just soooooo cool. Congratulations,and your boy will remember things like this for the rest of his life.

[Woxbox]

Nice. The Greenland paddle isn't all that much work. You can take away most of the waste with a bandsaw, cutting the planing work way down. The hardest part can be finding a decent piece of stock to start with.

[DGentry]

For little kids, you can make a Greenland paddle out of a 1x4, perhaps with an added layer glued to the shaft if his hands are big enough.

[AnalogKid]

I've lost a chunk of skin of the side of my hand having spent half the day pushing my cheapo #4 smoothing plane though a nice clear piece of 1-3/8x3-3/4" softwood decking. It's roughed out and profiled, but I've still got a lot of sanding to do before it can be called a paddle. I don't have a band saw, and the jigsaw really didn't like ripping that thickness of timber.

Eight-siding the loom was pretty easy put shaping the blades was really hard, especially removing the deck tread grooves from one face.

The most satisfying part of the job was I finally got my second-hand, flea market, curved-faced spokeshave tuned in to a point where it was actually nice to use.

[Woxbox]

From what I've read, the Inuit never had bandsaws either. It may be they didn't have any electric tools. But they did turn out nice paddles. This one got put in a museum. I've been thinking that will be my next paddle project - do one with fake ivory edges, but I haven't quite pulled together a critical mass of enthusiasm.

[AnalogKid]

Ray Mears makes it look pretty easy in this video, although I wonder just how long it took him to make this canoe paddle from beginning to end. And I suspect the folding camp saw wasn't available to the average Inuit builder either.

[Woxbox]

That's an impressive bit of field work. But all I could think of was what happens when the axe or saw slips, and now you have a serious wound to deal with out there in the bush. I'm with the guy who says just carry a spare.

[glint]

Hi ,I also live in Northcote and have just built a skin on frame kayak and fish out of a prowler 4.5 sot.Maybe you might like to swap stories some time.

[AnalogKid]

Sounds cool. How does your skin kayak go compared to the SOT? about twice as fast and 1/4 the weight I should imagine.

The kayaks are locked away for another 6 weeks, no spare time at the moment because I got roped into coaching the lad's rugby team. I'm hoping to get the 16' double stitch and tape launched before Christmas. It's big and wide enough to fish out of I'm sure.

[glint]

Tried to down load pictures but could not. If you are interested in what i have been up to look at www.kayakfishingnz.com sit in kayaks -winter build