If n' When II -- Rigging & Outfitting

Click on the photos for a larger, uncropped version

Bilge Pump

Early in the planning stage, I had decided that I wanted a foot operated pump. Pete Roszyk did it to a couple of his boats which gave me a place to start with my thinking. Because the compass was going to be mounted almost directly above the pump, I elected to mount the pump sideways, discharging out the side of the deck. It takes more plumbing, but allows the pump to be mounted higher, getting the button under the ball of my foot.

The forward bulkhead was reinforced with two stringers of 3/4 x 3/4 cedar housing "tee nuts." This reinforced the bulkhead (way overkill, I think) and created blind nuts for the stainless machine screws that will hold the pump in place. Once the epoxy from this step cured, this side of the bulkhead was finished with a layer of 4 oz. cloth covering the bulkhead and reinforcing stringers.

I finally got brave and marked the spot for the pump outlet. The primary hole was cut with a hole saw, and then finished with a rotary rasp to match the OD of the discharge pipe. I think cutting this hole was the scariest part of the whole project! Discharge port to the left, compass mounting pad to the right.

Here's what it looks like with the pump mounted in place. The intake pipe forms a backwards "P" to pick up directly below the pump. The bulkhead has been mounted in the boat using epoxy thickened with wood flour (I ran out of fumed silica.)

Thigh Braces

Having a boat that fits is the key to boat control. I really like the way my Outlaw (the orange boat in the background) fits, and I'm trying to replicate the cockpit layout. The thigh braces in the Outlaw were my source of inspiration (and measurements.) The radius of the braces was matched by a Rubbermaid 2 gallon pitcher. Rather than steal the one from the kitchen, I broke down and bought one to be sacrificed for a good cause.

I cut the pitcher in quarters, and then shaped one of the pieces to match the edge of the coaming. A couple boards across the cockpit, and some styrofoam and grey tape provided the structure needed for the molds. This picture is a little misleading -- before I could get my thigh braces made, a friend who built a Return last year heard what I was doing and wanted a set, so I sprayed some glue, stuck down some Saran Wrap, and laid up a set for him. Always nice to practice on someone else!

After cleaning up from the first set, I laid up these directly to the structure. Used 3 layers of 6 oz. carbon fiber along with 5 layers of 6 oz. glass. I'm glad I did these before putting the deck and hull together. The molds were much easier to create and the work was much easier to do.

The cutlines were marked with a scribe, essentially matching the dimensions from the Outlaw. The hooks as outlined in the photo are 3.5 inches below the deckline at the lowest point, and extend back about 12 inches from the front of the cockpit. The extra was removed with a very fine toothed sabre saw and a Japanese pull saw for the last little bit. Note: once I was finally able to sit in the boat, I ended up removing another 3/4" from the lowest point. I'd failed to account for this boat being about 2 inches narrower than the Outlaw.

Some thickened epoxy was tinted black with some laser printer toner and a fillet applied to radius the joint between the thigh brace and the coaming. One last layer of cloth was then applied from the coaming rim down across the thigh brace. This picture also shows the last layer of cloth on the remainder of the coaming rim - it wraps from the outside coaming edge all the way around under the deck. (Note: These thigh braces were too agressive. On the King I used a 5 gallon bucket for a mold which was a much better radius.)

Compass Mount

Creating a level spot for the compass was going to require cutting through the deck in one spot. A backing block was fabricated from cedar and glued in place with thickened epoxy before the underside of the deck was glassed.

A router template was fabricated and jigged up on the deck to enable cutting a level recess for the compass. Nothing beats strapping tape and wedges for jury-rigging templates!

Now we have a spot for the compass. Forward far enough to clear a chart holder, and low enough to be protected if the boat is turned over. Compass positioning was critical because I knew I wanted to use magnets for the hatch covers and they needed to be at least 20" from the compass to avoid interference. The blue tape on the deck is where the forward bulkhead will be positioned, putting the bilge pump nearly directly below the compass.

Bulkheads

Bulkheads were fabricated out of strips and covered with a layer of 4 oz. on each side. Each bulkhead has a small hole drilled through an epoxy "plug" to allow for equalization of air pressure. All the bulkheads were sanded to fit, edges sealed with epoxy, and then hard mounted in the boat using thickened epoxy applied using the "cut a corner of a Ziploc bag and use it like a frosting tube" trick. My brother didn't think I could fit to reach the forward bulkhead!

Foot Braces

Thanks to Jon Murray's mention these studs on the Kayak Building Bulletin Board, I was able to easily install mount points for the foot brace rails. These "Ez-Point Studs" from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty are designed to be epoxy mounted. The stud base was placed with thickened epoxy made with fast hardner and then a patch of 4 oz. fabric was placed over it. This should result in a stud installation with about 500 pounds shear strength. Two studs support each foot brace rail.

The Yakima 7" rail had to be modified on the ends with a hacksaw to allow access to the nut. The rail as delivered is designed to be mounted with a screw through the hull into the threaded rail. Originally, I was just going to pad the bulkhead around the pump for my footbrace, but these installed real easy, and I appreciate the ability to easily adjust them.

Soft Padeyes

I really likes the soft padeyes that Joe Greenley uses. Very simple, and minimal opportunity for something to snag. Joe says that he melts the ends of the strap together forming a bulb on the inside. Spidey threaded his through plywood plates and epoxied them. I like the strength of Spidey's style, but wanted something that was less bulky on the inside of the boat. I started by making a clamping jig from a 2" wide strip of plexiglas. Slots were routed into the plexiglas using the same jig I used to route the slots in the boat.

I then threaded one piece of tubular nylon webbing into the clamping jig, making sure the loops stuck out the right amount to allow for hull thickness, number of lines, size of line, etc. I mixed up some thickened epoxy - peanut butter consistency - and worked it into the joint where the loop comes back through the clamping jig.

Meanwhile I had another strip of webbing soaking in a cup of epoxy. Once the peanut butter was applied, the second strip of nylon was laid over the series of loops and clamped with another strip of Plexiglas. This jig made up 12 loop assemblies, but there was no magic to the number, just the length of Plexiglas that was available in my scrap bin. I did not apply any normal consistency epoxy to the looped strap - only the thick stuff at the joint. I depended on the epoxy soaked into the second strip to flow into looped strip to create the bond. I didn't want epoxy to bleed into the loops themselves since they were supposed to be "soft."

The next morning, I had a series of padeyes with flanges to retain them in the boat. I cut them into individual padeyes with a fine tooth blade in the sabre saw, sanded the edges of the base on a belt sander, and melted any fuzzy stuff on the base with a propane torch. They went into the slots in the boat (a whole 'nother story) and were sealed with silicon seal.

J Cradle Rack Adapters

After seeing the "J" Cradles that Ross Leidy designed for his kayaks, I knew I was going to need to do something similar to save rack space since I often haul at least 4 boats. Rather than molding wooden cradles, I decided to fabricate mine out of carbon fiber, fiberglas, and epoxy. I calculated the locations for the cradles, taped 2 layers of 1/4 closed cell foam to the boat, covered it with a Saran Wrap parting surface and built up 8 layers of carbon fiber and glass cloth. By using two layers of foam for the mold, I created 1/4" extra space in the cradle so that I have some flexibility in how the boat is positioned.

Because I thought I would want to use a bar on the cab of my truck to get a longer span between bars, I needed the bases to be high enough that the boat would clear the center bar. The base was built up out of a cedar base with plywood sides, then layered with three layers of cloth inside and out. In retrospect, the extra span is not necessary, and sometime I'll get around to changing the cradles to mount closer to the bar.

I picked up the rack adapters and nuts from my local REI store. It was lots quicker than building up adapters!

The boat loads fairly easily (I wish I were taller!) and does leave room for three other boats if they can be loaded on edge. As long as all my friends keep paddling plastic I'll be alright! By the time the truck left town, we had loaded a third boat and most of a 14' Cataraft load along with four people. The J cradles are very stable - no movement, even at 75 mph.