The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Gary, there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Extra inches would go toward the bow … your center of gravity while seated, doesn’t change regardless of the shape/size of the cockpit, so you want the extra inches where your knees will appreciate them. The recess … yes, part of the function of the ...

I use a custom-carved foam seat in my Endeavour, and love it. After having built a kayak, a seat is easy.

I think the seat position is more critical than the cockpit boundaries, in terms of fore/aft balance. The cockpit outline can be anything, as long as it doesn't interfere with the use of the seat. In kayakcraft, the back of the cockpit looks to be 3-4" behind station 10, which if I recall corre...

I carved a custom foam seat for my Endeavour. Out of a single 24" x 24" x 3" block of foam, I got ... - seat; - seat back; - side (thigh) supports; - a pair of roof rack cradles; and - small bits left over for knee braces & such. Very comfortable, never any numbness or discomfort ...

I wouldn't fret too much over the strip colouring ... it'll turn out gorgeous no matter how you arrange them. I used both WRC and EWC on the deck of my kayak. At first, the contrast between them was quite obvious. 10 years later, not so much. They have somehow aged toward a more similar shading. I h...

I could probably have just add some false bed to the planer to raise material up, but that seems like it could lead to other issues (accuracy, etc). I guess this kind of thing should be expect from the lower end of the tool price range. ;) That's true ... but even with my mid-priced planer (Ridgid)...

Kingstrip? Coverboards? I used KayakCraft as my primary guide, but I have no memory of that terminology. Must be an age thing. No matter. How far along are you with the deck? For the deck of my Endeavour, I went with planed edges instead of bead & cove. The curvature on the deck is pretty mild, ...

No worries. My club runs annual pool sessions every spring and my kayak has been in the pool many times over the years. No effect. Sure, you have to dry out the fore & aft hatches after each session, but hopefully you do that every time you go out anyway, even in fresh water. Rot isn't an issue,...

You have to be wary of grain-direction when using a plane on flat-sawn strips. In your situation, a thickness sander would actually be better than a thickness planer, but its not a very common home-workshop device. Among planes, the bench-top thickness planer is your best bet , as others have said. ...

I prefer staple-less methods, but as Jim alluded to, I have had occasions where some of the completed strips lifted off the forms a bit. No method is perfect. I've used Titebond III for building laminated kayak paddles, but I'd never use it for stripping. Its twice the price of regular Titebond, and...

...building the Resolute kayak. Getting ready to start the deck next week.

That's a milestone. You going strictly by the plans, or are you making any modifications? I deviated some on my Endeavour deck.

Once upon a time, the 38 Special was on my short-list for a solo canoe. But it seems the plans are no longer offered for sale. Did you get yours from Northwest?

Do you perhaps mean the Kipawa, by John Winters? I have the plans for that one, but haven't built it yet.

I'd just patch the low spots to bring them up to a comparable thickness as the surrounding surface ... if you recoat the entire boat, you'll raise the "highs" by as much as the "lows" and still end up uneven. As long as you can get a fair surface prior to varnishing, any patches ...

I have nothing to add to Jim's & Rod's posts ... but I'm curious ... what the heck is going on in your avatar pic?