Skin on frame kayak plans

Discussion in 'Boatbuilding' started by chuckyNZ, Sep 10, 2013.

  1. upchurchmr
    Joined: Feb 2011
    Posts: 3,287
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    Location: Ft. Worth, Tx, USA

    upchurchmr Senior Member

    Gentlemen,

    I have just discovered that an old suggestion has a lot of merit. Don't round over the outside surface of the SOF stringers. The reason is that any debris/ trash that gets in the boat (including dirt, sand, rocks) quickly and easily gets trapped between the skin and the stringer.
    I have a brand new boat I want to sell that looks like it has zits along the stringers. carefully scraping between the stringer and the skin with a thin piece of plastic shows very small pieces of dirt or construction debris (wood chips/ shavings).

    This should suggest that a dowel would be very bad for appearance. I really wanted to use dowels for the reason Watson shows, just could not find any cheap enough. Thank goodness I didn't.
    The only way I could see to do this would be to paint the inside of the boat to keep the dirt out. But I don't see how to do that!

     
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  2. rwatson
    Joined: Aug 2007
    Posts: 6,163
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    Location: Tasmania,Australia

    rwatson Senior Member

    Dont panic - its not an accurate suggestion.

    Square or round, if you get the boat filled up with dirty, brackish water, you will end up gunge caught in the sharp angles, or even between dowelled stringers.

    I have paddled in Folboats - the collapsible dutch Kayaks with dowels in place of stringers. There was no problem. In fact, the dowel shape made for less wear on their canvas cover, as it has a higher area to pressure ratio, unlike the sharp edges of a chine.

    The skin of a kayak is never drumskin tight against the fabric, and a hose is all that is needed to wash sand and other debris out of the upside down hull.
     
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