Some of Kurt's highly entertaining and informative writings can be found here:

http://mysite.verizon.net/NGC704/newOI/

Scroll to the bottom of the page for many links to some of his older material. I wish he would update his progress on this boat :)

Kurt has posted fairly regularly in the recent past on Guillemot Kayaks' "Kayak Building Bulletin Board."

I don't know Kurt, but I have learned a lot from him and had a few good laughs along the way.

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Ogata

Ogata

Thanks for the reply. The link you provided allowed me to get reconnected to thje Sawdust Factory site. I looked through Kurt's pages and didn't see anything about how he attaches the bungies through the hull. One picture of the original Outer Island seems to show teh scheme I'm referring to being used, but I can't tell for sure. Maybe Kurt will chime in.

 I don't know Kurt either, but I share your comments.

Jim

I miss Kurt and wish he'd come back here at least every now & then. Thanks for the link to his new website.

As for the bungees, it really was just drilling the undersized hole and knotting the cord under the deck. And it was completely impossible for me to duplicate. As Kurt might say, it plumb evaded me. Or was that Jimmy Buffet? Anyway, the problem was that even when I heat sealed the ends, they were too big to get through the undersized hole. The bungee cord would just fray.

Since then, I found a description of the secret step that Kurt never needed (or at least never discussed). For some reason I associate Ross Leidy with this, so he must either be the inventor or have passed the info along.

Anyway, the secret step is to stretch the bungee cord to narrow it to less than the undersized hole's diameter and while it's stretched, immobilize part of it by dousing it with superglue. When the glue hardens, cut the cord through the glue and you end up with 2 pieces of bungee cord with stable narrow ends that will fit through the holes.

It's one of those brilliant solutions that I really wish I'd thought of.

Hope this gets you going Jim,

Laszlo

Jim,

You might take a look through John Caldeira's kayak related writings too. There is a link to his site at the bottom of Kurt's page. Both sites are full of extremely useful tips and ideas. And I think they have both used this technique. You might try searching through old posts by Kurt, John or Ross on the "Kayak Builders' Bulletin Board" for more information as well:

http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/index.cgi

That's a great tip Laszlo, I don't recall hearing about the superglue trick before. I only remember someone discussing cutting and removing some of the interior rubber strands to reduce the diameter. The glue trick sounds much neater and more elegant.

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Ogata

I remember Kurt, too, and Ross is a friend of mine.  Here's the bungie procedure.  Cut the end of the bungie, then push/roll back the wrapping without unraveling it.  Just push it down enough to expose the ends of the rubber strands.  Cut off as much of the strands as you can.  A half inch should do it.  Now pull the wrapping forward over the end of the bungie rubber strands, twist into a point, apply super glue to the end and spray with kicker.  You've now got a "needle" to thread the bungie through the undersized hole.  Stick the pointed end through the hole, and pulling on both ends to stretch the bungie, pull it through the hole.  I've done that on a whole bunch of kayaks.  Works great.  1/4 bungie will thread great through a 3/16 hole using that technique and is pretty much water tight.

Thanks to everone for your input. I too experienced the frustrations Laszlo mentioned and somehow stumbled on a solution similar to that described by JimKoz. Instead of using super glue on the wrapping, I carefully melt the strands with a match. Same result.

The main reason I wanted to read Kurt's instructions was to see if there was some sort of prep for the holes (beyond a coat or two of epoxy on the bare wood created when drilling); maybe an extra layer of glass on the underside, or perhaps a stainless washer? I'm going to go for it and see how it holds up.

Jim

I claim no credit for the superglue trick - that's one I got from Joe Greenley.  Here's the original post: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Building/Archive50.pl/noframes/read/54933

 Ross