applying plywood decking to a kayak

[Dry Pond Boat Works]

What is the trick for applying the thin plywood decking to a kayak or decked over canoe? How do you locate the beams and bulkheads and do you use staples or just strapping tape? I was going to make a mock deck using thin lexan and locating the places where I can shoot staples and then transfer that to the plywood, but it occured to me that I have seen kayaks with no staple marks so I figured that there had to be another way.

[JimD]

All I've ever done is just carefully measure where the bulkheads are, run a bead of thickened epoxy on the top edge, and strap/weight/clamp the deck on with what ever improvised jury rig works. No staples or other fasteners required. If the deck is going to have hatches so much the better. You can cut a small hole in the deck big enough for your arm to fit in so you can better smooth an epoxy fillet at the bulkhead.

Here you can see the bulkhead is framed out along the top to provide a wide contact surface for the deck.



On this kayak I used masking tape not only to hold the deck on but instead of wire stitches for building the hull as well. A stitchless stitch and glue boat.

[jerry bark]

what i did was to take a ratchet strap and place it over the decking right above the bulkhead. then i tightened the strap until the decking was bent down onto the bulkhead and tight at the sheer clamp. i then nailed along the sheer clamp alternating between sides, two or three nails per side, until done.

i put a bead of thickened epoxy on the top of the bulkhead first, and then applied a filet to the underside where i could reach from the cockpit.

worked great for me.

cheers
jerry

[MRJarret]

A valuable trick:
Fill an empty caulking gun catridge with the thickened epoxy mixture when applying to the sheer clamps, carlins, and bulkheads. My students have built many stitch and glues, some with this method & some without -- it saves so much time and effort!
Jamestown Dist. sells them, but my local hardware store does not.

Michael