Shearwater 17 Build

I joined the forum just about a month ago after I ordered a Shearwater 17 kit.  I drove down to CLC this morning to pick it up, and this evening I got started.  After unpacking the hull pieces and getting the epoxy and assorted bits and pieces organized, I lined up the sections with the best pattern matches and numbered the joints so they would all go back together as planned.  

Laid out, I realized that my garage is about 18 feet deep, so this will be an interesting build...

Then I beveled the edges and glued the hull pieces together.  I used a nice old Stanley low angle block plane, and found that by angling the plane body, I was able to get all the curves, both concave and convex.

For the action shot, I found that a beer bottle makes an excellent free standing monopod for my P&S camera...

After the joints were epoxied and glassed, I took some scrap wood and screwed it into the table to compress the joints.  We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

I'll continue to post pictures and update on progress as the build moves along.  I hope to get at least the bottom section of the hull stitched up tomorrow night.

Gero


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RE: Shearwater 17 Build

Tonight I stitched the hull together, starting with the bottom, followed by the bulkheads and the sides.  That was a lot of wires to twist, but it was really cool to see the hull take shape.

Once I got both sides on, I twisted the wires tight and lined up the bevels as close as I could as I went along.  Even without the deck on, I really like the lines of this hull.

With the stitched hull now perched on my tablesaw and work table, I got down to glueing together the deck and shear pieces.  These will get beveled and stiched tomorrow.

RE: Shearwater 17 Build

This afternoon, I cleaned up the fiberglass joints on the deck and shear panels, and beveled all the edges.  I then got down to stiching these parts together.

After fitting the forms under the deck, I placed the deck on the hull and admired how nicely this is coming together.

Then I proceeded to stitch the deck to the hull and I will let it sit for a day or two before taking the deck off and getting to work on tacking the hull.

RE: Shearwater 17 Build

One thing I found, which I forgot to mention in my last post, was that by following the recommendation in the instruction booklet of cutting the wire coils into thirds, I went through four coils putting everything together for the first time.  The kit only comes with three coils...

I found on the last coil that cutting it into forths worked just fine, and this was when I was putting the deck on.  You might want to keep this in mind if you're building your first S&G kit.

RE: Shearwater 17 Build

I'm updating this build on www.kayakforum.com under the build forum if you'd like to follow.

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