OK, JEM...... | Page 8 | SouthernPaddler.com

OK, JEM......

hairymick

Well-Known Member
Dec 8, 2005
2,107
2
Queensland, Australia
LOL

I can relate to that. My 21 year old son is just not interested. :roll: My 15 YO daughter has put in an order for her own swampgirl and wants to help build it. :D

I'm not game to show her a piccie of the new kayak you are working on. Not just yet anyway.
 

islandpiper

Well-Known Member
Oh, Hatt.......just one more thing. It's got to slide easily throu a complete mat of duckweed on the surface.....

Just got back from an evening pirogue trip through some dense duckweed....man it was like dragging a bucket.

Oh well, us old guys need excercise.

Piper
 

islandpiper

Well-Known Member
Matt, one more thing......it's gotta slide through a solid mat of duckweed, like this in a bayou near me here......heh heh heh Piper
duckweek.jpg
 

hairymick

Well-Known Member
Dec 8, 2005
2,107
2
Queensland, Australia
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: is that snot native to your country? or is it some sort of introduced pest.

We have something similar that is slowly starting to infest our rivers & dams but nothing as extensive as that. - yet.
 

islandpiper

Well-Known Member
Actually its Duckweed.......samll two leaf plant with haning roots. the leaves together measure perhaps 1.5 cm across......and it isn'g gooey, just plentiful. It only grows in fairly clean, non polluted water. But, grow it does. In this place as you paddle along the gators give themselves away as they rise up and look around.

The worst thing is the added drag they put on the boat, like I said, feels like dragging a bucket on a rope.

Piper
 

hairymick

Well-Known Member
Dec 8, 2005
2,107
2
Queensland, Australia
Hiya Piper,

that sounds just like what we have here. it is not native to our streams and is slowly choking them. Most of our fish struggle in it and every flood, the stuff is flushed down into the salt water where it dies. but it allways grows back :evil:

Our bass seem to thrive in and around it but its a pain in the arse to try to paddle through.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
oldsparkey said:
Piper.....

Did you graphite and epoxy the bottom of the pirogue? Mine are and they slip thru those duckweed's like nothing. Worse problem I have is with them sticking to the canoe paddle. Chuck.
OH GOD! Now - I have to agree with Chuckie. OUCH!

I paddled through a bunch of green munchies - that really was moose pasture - in Killarney Provincial Park, Ottawa. I slud right through slicker'n snot on a door knob. Piper-san, if you haven't put three coats of graphite enriched epoxy on the bottoms of your boats up to the waterline - RUN, don't walk and git'er done. I kid thee not.

1. About 20% of graphite to epoxy by volume. Measure the resin, add graphite, mix like your life depends on it (it does), then add hardener and mix again.

2. Apply masking tape to outer edges of wetted surface area & roll or brush on the mix. Let set up.

3. Remove old tape, and back off the next set about 1/8" further out. Repeat steps# 1 & 2

4. Repeat steps # 1, 2, & 3.

5. After it is set up, lightly sand off the shiny surface.

You now have a protectant surface that will be much harder than even standard epoxy, resist gouges, slide right off Indian love stones, and slide through green gunky stuff with ease.

Or - not. Your choice.
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
BEARS BUDDY said:
Chuck and Jack are agreeing an awful lot lately. Must be their medication.


Just something or something's that will knock ya socks off ........ It will be something to ......(______Blank______) :wink:

Always said ......( ________Blank________) No one will ever believe it , not even me , and 6 of us witnessed it by being active participants 8) . I still don't believe it will happen. :D

Chuck.
PS. I will fill in the blanks in about 75 days or around that time frame. Early November. As they say on the new's .. Stay tunned in folks and see the (______Blank_______) :lol:
 

tioga

Active Member
May 9, 2005
34
0
NE Pennsylvania
open cockpit

Jem
I saw this thread from the start and really like the boat,with all that has been said the slow guy that I am I have become confused.The last drawings shown show the keyhole cockpit.I was wondering if you are going to offer a more wide open deisgn of the cockpit. I guess what I am looking for is a Large opening for a Very Large guy to get into.If I missed it in the threads I offer my apologies.In the begining of the thread you showed a drawing of the cockpit I am looking for,and now it seems like the keyhole cockpit is what is being talked about.
Thanks
tioga
 

JEM

Well-Known Member
Here's where I'm at:

I've finished getting the panels laid out and set up the full-size patterns for the frames and cockpit coamings. The coaming will show 2 options: Keyhole, and the simpler oval-ish opening.

I will also do an open deck version like I first drew.

Everything will be in one drawing package so the builder can look at things and then decide which way they want to go.

There will be precut kit. I might offer a "frames, bulkheads, and cockpit" kit in addition to the full kit. I do this because the frames, bulkheads, and coaming should be made from 6mm for, what I feel, is the best results. Builder will have to be more specific about what they want with the kit.

I should have all the drawings complete this weekend. I'll have the BOM and assembly instruction to do after that. Those will take some time to do right.

But, I know several builders are anxious to get this one going so I might do a "presale" where builders can purchase the panel drawings and then I'll follow up with the assembly instructions when they are ready. I'd knock like $10 off the price or something. I haven't decided if I'll do that or not. Much will depend on how things shake out this weekend with the small version I'm building for my daughter.

I almost screwed things up royally on this drawing. I have the hatch lids orientated in the wrong direction. Not sure if everyone is aware of this or not but plywood tends to bend easier in one direction and not the other. I had to go back and rearrange a lot of stuff because I've maxed out the available plywood space.

So anyway, it's coming along. Just need to keep chugging.
 

skiabq

Active Member
May 6, 2006
33
0
Albuquerque
Matt, could you shed a little more light on the "plywood tends to bend easier in one direction and not the other"? I am not exactly sure what you mean, or maybe the cheap plywood that I have used so far doesn't behave like this.

Thanks
 

JEM

Well-Known Member
Sure. I should have not made such a general statement.

A lot depends on the plywood make up. Typical Okoume 4mm has 3 plies to it. The grain of the outer plies orientated so it goes along with the longer measurement of the 4x8. The inner ply is orientated toward the short dimension of the plywood, or 90 degrees from the outer plies.

This makes it easier to bend the plywood around the longer dimension so you're only fighting the grain on the inner ply.

In other words, imagine if you cut some plywood so you have a square piece and that your were tring to bend the plywood into a cylinder. It's easier to try and bend the plywood so the former longer sides touch together than it would be to bend it so the former shorter sides touch.

So when you bend around the grain direction of the outer plies, you're only bending against the one inner ply's grain.

When you try and bend around the grain direction of the inner ply, then you're fighting the grain of 2 plies.

I can't recall if the Home Depot/Lowes plywood has 3 "true" plies or just press board in between 2 outer vaneers. But it would still be easier to bend around the grain direction of the outer plies.

Now if you have some plywood with equal number of plies in alternating direction, then it won't matter which direction you try and bend in.