Building And Outfitting the Chesapeake Light Craft Pax 18.

Page 2

Updated April 28, 2006, kayak construction still in progress.

 

 

Assemble The Hull Upside Down

Before removing the plywood table we stacked the bottom pannels together to drill the wiring holes in identical locations on each side. I drew a pencil line 3/8" from the edge all the way around, and then drilled wire holes every 4" with a 1/16" drill bit. I wrote "Inside" on what will be the inside of each of the bottom panels because I had started wiring the panels together backward and had to take the wires out and start over. We used more c-clamps (padded with wood scraps and big popsicle sticks to prevent denting the plywood) to hold the bottom panels together. After drilling, we loosly wired the bottom edge with a bunch of 3 1/2" 18-gauge copper wires.

I trimmed the excess sheer clamps off the ends of the side panels and loosly stitched the ends together with copper wire. Then we picked out a scrap stick to spread the panels at the point of maximum beam. The maximum beam on the Pax 18 is 21 1/2" which was a little hard to measure. I tried to measure outside edge to outside edge but the widest part of the outside edges included about 1/2" of sheer clamp that will be planed off when the deck is attached.

Then we flipped the side panels over, slipped out our plywood "table", and rested the side panels directly on the saw horses, sheer clamps down. A few sticks layed across the side panels allowed us to open the bottom panels like a butterfly and rest them on top of the side panels.

Starting at the bow, making sure the leading edge was lined up, I drilled a few holes in the side panels 3/8" from the edge and opposite the holes already drilled in the bottom panels. One of us was good at wiring the panels together and the other wasn't (me) so I drilled a few holes on the starboard side and then a few on the port side and we worked our way slowly side to side back to the stern. When we finished, it started to look like a kayak!

 

 

Leveling the Hull

After the hull panels are wired together upside down, the whole thing gets flipped over and suspended from cross beams and leveled before filling the inside seams with epoxy filler.

First, I drove four wood screws for hanging the hull, two on each side and each one 72" from the closest end. 8" pieces of copper wire were cut and I wrapped the center of each wire piece around one of the screws.

Then I clamped together leveling crosspieces as seen in the photos, supported by the sawhorses with vertical pieces and more clamps. When the crosspieces are in place the hull can be flipped over, lifted and tied to the crosspieces with the copper wire.

A long spirit level was used to make sure hull hung level. The Chesapeake instructions say that, "the vertical seam of bow and stern should be exactly 90 degrees to the crosspieces lying across the sheer clamps." This is the part that worried me the most. They say that the best thing to do is eyeball it and twist the bow or stern as needed until everything is properly aligned. Step back and concentrate on the shape of the hull and don't worry about the ends until later when the transoms are fitted.

 

Adding The Transoms

The transoms force a reverse curve in the hull at the bow and the stern that adds volume and, therefore, buoyancy at the ends of the kayak.

I removed the temporary wires at the bow and test fitted the bow transom.

I drilled four holes on each side of the hull behind the transom and looped copper wire through them, behind the transom and around to the front.

Tightening the wires brought the curve of the hull in to match the curve of the transom. When everything looked OK I repeated the process on the stern.

 

 

Fitting The Bulkheads

The bulkheads got wired in next. First I drilled four holes in each bulkhead, a hole opposite the center of each hull panel and about 3/8" from the edge.

After measuring and marking the locations for each bulkhead using the distances shown in the blueprints, I test fitted each and marked places to drill holes in the hull panels.

The instructions warn against twisting the wires that hold the bulkheads in place too tightly. It was a good thing, since there were significant gaps between bulkhead and hull in some places when a bulkhead was tucked up against the sheer clamp. Twisting too tightly would have introduced concave warps into the hull.

 

 

 

©Mike Massey. All rights reserved. That said, all images on KayakCam.com may be used freely for non-commercial purposes.