A northern Michigan kayak & kayak builder story.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Been a Few Years

I thought I would take a few minutes and post a few new thoughts. The kayaks have been great the cirrus is a great comfortable kayak. The Sea Ranger is a very advanced kayak, and this becomes very evident if you take some time away from kayaking. The sea ranger is very unstable and difficult in all but the calmest water. I recommend, strongly recommend, that you perfect the art of rolling before attempting anything too far off shore.

The second cirrus, well..that is still unfinished, lost some motivation. And what always is going to be a next summer project keeps on getting pushed back to next summer. So, maybe next summer.


Anyways, I LOVE TRAVERSE CITY!!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Dyed and Coaming attached

Check out the progress, just waiting for a warmer day to use the two part urethane from skinboats!!


Thursday, May 03, 2007

SOF in the works!


This kayak design is great. I love this boat. It's quick, relatively easy, cheap, and lightweight. Thanks to my good friend Amtt I have made some serious progress on the SOF. Check it out on his site! http://mikayaker.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 30, 2007

Selling my 1999 Jeep Cherokee Classic





Here's some pictures, I will post more soon. $4000.00 buys it. It is a great truck!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Onward HO!















I love this kayak, the build is fairly easy and Rewarding! I have decided on 3/16" dowels secured with Rhino Glue. This process took a few hours, but I also managed to cut out the bow and stern piece. The next steps involve epoxying the bow/stern, and then cutting off the excess dowels, and a quick light sand. Following that I will build a seat, coaming and then look at skinning it.

I did add two pieces of wood to the section behind the coaming. I did this for two reasons. To add support to reenter the boat in open water, and to give me a place to secure any type of cargo. I figure it may have added a half an inch.

Check out the pics.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Progress is oh so Sweet

I love this design. It is a quick building kayak! I have cut the forms, trimed the forms, and epoxied the forms. I have also scarfed the keel, chines and gunwhales. And since I have an existing strongback I bought some zipties and on we go.

I do have a few dilemmas all in all. I have a very hard time epoxying in the current weather 20 degrees. And I am divided on how to attach the boards to the forms. There are several schools of thought: Epoxy, dowels, sinu(sp), screws, or a combination. I am thinking a fast set epoxy and stainless screws, not very traditional, but in the watehr in may work. I have to do some more research, for now zipties.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

A New Boat!!





OK, so here's the story. I got married, traveled to Eurpoe for about a month, and then had the holiday's.

But now, with the help of Matt, I am back building a Tom Yost Sea Ranger!! I am excited, because unlike the Cirrus this boat should prove to be easy. So tune back in and get ready for the new build.



So here's a few pics opf the stations, the wood for two boats and me! (Thanks Matt for the Pic).

So far I have cut the stations, epxoied them, stripped the wood to the proper length and scarfed the joints to make them 19' or so. I am atempted to epoxy them tonight, but I could only keep heat in the garage for about two hours, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good epoxy joint. Stay tuned!!