A launch date was fixed when the boat was nearing completion.  I had a few people meeting me at the marina area and therefore the deadline pressure was on for me.  I had purchased a second-hand set of roof racks with a kayak carrier included beforehand.  I had never loaded a kayak on a car before and only had plastic rope to tie it up with.  When driving down to the marina the boat was moving around on the roof so much that other cars were beeping their horns.  Unfortunately the paint would not dry to a hard finish for weeks after the launch and some of the paint came off the boat to the roof-racks on the way down to launching spot.  I did successfully get the boat to the water, however, without accident.  At the launch, I did not feel one-hundred percent sure it was going to float and take my weight when I sat in it; it was my first boat and the question of ‘will it sink’ is in the back of your mind.  The boat worked fine and it was complemented on.  You can see in the photos that Richard had his wooden kayak there too, a Cape Charles.  It was a big day for me and represented a lot of effort to get to this stage.  I did not remember it now, but the photos show I have not made the hatch covers yet.

Taking to the water for the first time: will it float?

In the water, Richard in foreground with his Cape Charles kayak.

First paddle.

First Paddle.

First paddle.  Notice the hatch covers are not made yet.

The build was problematic and I was sloppy with the glue.  Maybe this was because of some shortcuts I tried to make, my inexperience,  but it took an extraordinary long time with all the fixes I had to do.  Bad and incorrect things that happened during the build were:

·         one of the side panels broke when bent-to-shape for the three dimensional stitching together; it broke at the scarf joint where two ply sheets are joined to make a panel longer than one ply sheet.  This was remedied by making a butt- joint, something the instructions do not recommend as a preferred way.  The join is strong and there is no noticeable flat section in the shape of the boat to tell it was done. 

·         The epoxy pump got air in it, somehow, when I was making the keel out of epoxy resin.  I am not sure if the mix of epoxy-to-hardener is correct on the keel.  This is important for strength reasons.  I measured out the epoxy by eye and it was certainly not the exact mixture.  The keel epoxy did go ‘off’ (harden), however, so, this cannot be too much of a problem.  I now mix epoxy by measuring it out in cups; something that astounds everyone I tell, but I will never trust a pump again after this experience.

·         The epoxy did not go ‘off’ neatly on the keel.  Although it went hard, it corrugated and left creators like the ones on the Moon.  I thought this was solely the problem of mixing, but the epoxy went off slightly this way again with my second building project.  I am not sure if this is a problem with all epoxy or just Bote-Coat epoxy.  It is an embarrassment to show the keel to anyone admiring the boat, but they do not seem to notice unless I point it out.

·         I did let the brother-in-law touch the boat again after my issue with him.  He laid the fibre-glass sheath over the hull.  This was done in Brisbane in the storm season.  A big storm came over us when the job was in progress.  I was to discover the roof leaked in the shed we were in.  Some water dripped on to the wet epoxy as it was laid over the boat.  It was also so humid that the brother-in-laws head dripped sweat over the wet, un-cured, epoxy also.  The fibre-glass sheath seems fine despite these problems.

·         When it came to filling the cloth weave for the fibre-glass sheath with other coats of epoxy I used epoxy thickened with filler instead of using just unthickened epoxy to fill the weave.  I am not sure how this has affected the strength of the fibre-glass sheath, but it seems to have worked out okay.  I did this as a result of not constantly consulting the instructions and my miss-understanding on what to do – somehow you get strange ideas about how to do a job.

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·         The boat had a twist in it.  I levelled the boat, before gluing the panels, with a bubble level instead of two broom sticks like it says in the instructions; it appears to me that bubble levels are not as accurate as straight broomsticks.  I think because of this twist I had to fill a hollow in the rear of the boat and straighten the keel.  The photos show how difficult this was.

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·         I pinched the bow and stern together so that they were ply-to-ply.  Somehow I thought if the boat had fine entry and exit it would be more streamlined.  This was a mistake and reduced the volume of the bow and stern.  Never try to outsmart the designer!  Although the boat is 17 feet long, it has more of the buoyancy and hull shape of a 16 foot boat because of this.

·         When it came to buying paint I went to the local paint shop and tried to buy oil-based house paint and marine varnish for the boat.  The paint shop attendant found out what I was using the paint for and convinced me to buy “Endrust” (one-pack epoxy paint) instead of oil-based house paint; and instead of varnish, a clear pavement paint.  I thought this a little unusual and expensive but was convinced and purchased it and applied it to the boat.  The use of the epoxy paint was definitely over-kill and subsequent coats of paint have been water-based exterior house paint; this has worked just fine.  I would not recommend water based exterior paint because the brush-stroke marks do not settle out and the finish is therefore not as flat as it could be, but as a paint, it functions well (This has been true for many years but after writing I have just found some bubbles in the last coat of paint).  I would recommend anyone painting their boat now to use a light-coloured oil-based paint applied with a foam roller so that you have a smooth finish.  Equally, when it came to re-doing the clear topsides the clear pavement paint could not be sanded as it behaved like glue that did not go off properly (I think this is called ‘waxing’ to those who know); in future, I recommend to use only varnish (no stain included) with a UV inhibitor.  The deck had to be scraped to the wood when it was redone years later, another major exercise (and good that I used even-veneered ply for the deck , which is not available anymore) .

I expected the plan-drawings to come in two or three weeks, however, I was to learn that the mail from America takes a long time and some ten weeks later, at the end of my break from university, I finally got the plans.  Your probably wondering where this story is taking place:  at the moment the story is located in Brisbane, Australia.  I would be disappointed if you do not know where Australia is.  Here is a map of Australia and you can find Brisbane in the middle of the east coast.

Ply boats start their lives as a couple of flat sheets of ply, like this...

  I tried to plane the scarf joints of my ply with a number 5 Stanley wood-plane I inherited: it had a blunt blade and this procedure was not a success.  My brother-in-law saw me working on the project and offered to help; he had boat building experience.  I was later to wish the brother-in-law kept out of the picture in this boat building task, which I will reveal soon.  My father could also see that I was out of my depth and joined with me in the building of the boat at most of the steps.  It was a good bonding exercise for me and my father.  Maybe it was because I was an adult now that I could see my father more as a person; I did not see a lot of him in my teens.  Of mention during this phase of the building was the ‘help’ I received off the brother-in-law; after Dad and I had carefully marked, cut, wood-planed, and sanded the panels to the perfect shape that could be achieved by hand, we were ready to turn the two dimensional, flat, ply panels into the three dimensional shape of the boat by stitching them together with wire.  The brother-in-law came to help stitch the panels together with wire; he said ‘I’ll fair up your panels for you’, grabbed a wood-plane that was near-by and started to skim wood off of my perfectly correct panels.  I was speechless while he was doing it but managed in my shock to say ‘put the plane down’.  I said the panels will have to be redone.  Dad and Brother-in-law said that it could not be done and the brother-in-law said he did not take that much off the panels anyhow.  When the boat took shape as it was stitched together there was a very pronounced concave ‘whoop’ in the keel-line where the brother-in-law had planed-off the panels.  It took me about eight hours over a few days to correct the miss-shaped section with wedges until I got the shape I thought the boat was meant to take.  (Small wooden wedges are put between the panels where they need to be expanded correcting the shape.)

(This is a picture of the wiring together.  It is the second Chesapeake I built and has never been finished to date!)

A few words of warning: never lose your voice, and take charge of what is going on around you – do not feel you are not in charge of your own building project.

Blog 2

I shared my idea of building the Chesapeake 17 with my friend, Roger Grimes.  Roger and I had been friends since high school and I knew his parents.  He informed me that his father had built another Chesapeake Light Craft kayak model called the Cape Charles.  The Chesapeake 17 was a newer design and replaced the Cape Charles model of kayak.  Unknown to me the designer and owner of Chesapeake Light Craft had published a popular book called ‘The Kayak Shop’ with the plans and off-sets for the Cape Charles within.  Richard was very clever with his hands and managed to build this boat out of directions from the book: it is a much easier task with full-size plans and building directions within the purchased plans.  His boat was very attractive and completely clear finished (clear varnish so that the wood grain shows through).  Richard and some people he met along the way were to become my first paddling companions.   Richard lent me the book.  This book had the plans for three kayaks in it and I had grandiose ideas that I would build one of the other kayaks from this book.  So when it came to buying the ply for the boat I bought enough to build two boats, but more about a second building project later.  Richard also lent me about 22 clamps that were necessary to build the kayak – as the builders of these boats say: you can never have enough clamps. 

Roughly Rite

The story of a Chesapeake 17 kayak, so far.

By David Grimshaw, owner and paddler of Roughly Rite

Written starting 12 November 2014

Blog 1

Was it the year 1997 or 1998? This is the question one asks themselves after all this time has passed about when this story started.  I do think it was 1997 when I first discovered the Chesapeake Light Craft web-site.  It had beautiful pictures of wooden kayaks made from plywood.  It had always been a lifetime goal for me to build a boat.  I have no particular history with these sort of projects and had helped my father and grandfather on some handyman jobs before, but was about to learn that I did not know so much about these type of jobs.  I looked at the website and visited it frequently in my web browser.  I really wanted a kayak but did not want to pay what I thought was the high cost of purchasing one.  The market for second hand kayaks was terribly small and inappropriate boats were advertised; this had been the case on previous occasions I had the ‘pang’ for a kayak to paddle.  So I decided I would build one of the Chesapeake kayaks.  I ordered plans for a Chesapeake 17 on the internet and paid with my credit card.  I also had grandiose ideas that Dad and guests would come paddling with me, so I ordered plans for the Chesapeake Double also.  I cannot remember how much this cost me, but something like $75 American dollars comes to mind.  Chesapeake Light Craft also sells kits for these kayaks; That is, you can buy the plywood already cut and can even get a complete kit with no need to shop for anything but paint.  However getting a kit had its problems: the kits had to come from America which made the freight costs very high; the Australian dollar was only $0.65 to the American $1, so, therefore, I would have had to pay nearly double the cost of a kit; I was re-assured that the Chesapeake 17 type was very easy to construct (only 40 hours, according to the web-site).  So, with costs again the major issue, I ordered plans and decided to build from scratch.  I also asked for a catalogue of their boats; this catalogue had many lovely pictures of plywood boats which made me fall in love again with the idea of having my own plywood boat.

Chesapeake Light Craft was a company in America that sold plans, made kits, and sold boat building supplies mostly for wooden kayaks.  I am not too sure if their range had expanded into the other small boats that they now offer in 2014.  They were a company that oozed a positive mental attitude.  I also became aware of another company that did much the same called Pygmy Boats.  Pygmy concentrated on selling complete kits rather than plans; to my memory the only kayak they offered in plans, in those 1997 days, was the Queen Charlotte.  I chose the Chesapeake 17 instead of the Queen Charlotte because of the positive and lengthy upbeat writing on the web-site that Chesapeake Light Craft had about their boats and the addictive web-site of Chesapeake Light Craft – I wanted to be a part of their family.  The Pygmy Boats web-site was basic, by comparison, and the Queen Charlotte looked a bit crude with its upper-deck appearance.  Did I make the right choice?  Who knows; as someone wrote on a forum once, they are all boats and one is probably not any better than the other.  The Chesapeake may have been easier to build as I think the Queen Charlotte needed forms to shape the ply over.  I would like to build a Pygmy boat one day, but because they only offer kits for most of their boats this may not occur; also, you can only have so many boats and I may need to sell some kayaks off before increasing my fleet.  Chesapeake also had a builders forum on the web and this became an addictive thing for me to watch; unfortunately it was not much help to the builder because you are asking other new builders your question and they do not have any more idea how to solve your problem than you did in the first place – but it was still additive.   End blog 1.