The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I used RAKA 127/350. I once put 3 coats on in a single day - about 6 hours between, IIRC. I called Larry at Raka to ask him about the time frame for a chemical bond, and he told me anything under 24 hours would be fine. I never left it that long, but it was good to know, as a fall-back. Call Larry i...

I glassed my Endeavour without a helper. I used Raka 127/350 epoxy. I did as Glen described, switching between wetting out a new section and going back to squeegee an earlier section, and never jeopardized the leading wet edge. Having said that, if there is someone available and willing to help, tak...

I used copier toner for my hatch supports. Worked fine, but not perfect (a little patchy for some reason). No biggie, since they are only visible when the hatch is open.

I have read that the concentrated dyes used for tinting paints work well, if you can get your hands on some.

Glen - Yep, I'm familiar with Andy's Cormorant, and Kurt Maurer's pair. You missed a couple prominent ones - Shawn Baker & Kurt Loup. Mark - 6 mm? That'll be durable. Did you glass the entire hull, or just the seams? I was planning 1/8" doorskin, glassed inside & out. Kurt Loup - I've v...

Hey Mark - is that the Squeedunk Grebe? Their Cormorant is on my to-build list - also as a hybrid Any challenges in the hull construction? I was thinking of rounding off that sharp angle at the foot of the stem at each end, but haven't got my mind around whether that'd be a difficult modification to...

...a "toilet bowl" wax ring .....use it to plug the tip of caulking tubes. Just plunge the tube tip into the wax, wipe off the excess and recap. A tube of silicone opened three years ago is still usable! A little off topic, but BRILLIANT . It drives me nuts tossing out old tubes of caulki...

If you are building a Bear Mountain design, you should screw the deck to the sheer clamps so that the deck and hatch lids don't deform as they are cut out. Wait a minute, Glen. If he's building a Bear Mtn design (and following the KayakCraft instructions), then the deck is already glued to the shee...

I built the Endeavour, which uses a rub-rail at the sheer. So I used staples to hold the first strip in place, and the staple-holes are hidden under the rub-rail.

This is no samll task as you will need four per mold. Why four? I used two. In response to davidb's original question, I used an occasional (every 4th or 5th strip) bead of hot-glue to hold the strips down against the molds. As glen pointed out, this method isn't without its downsides, but it got t...

Jonas - the Enterprise in shown on the cover of the book - furthest to the left, I think.



The deck certainly looks similar to the Endeavor, but being a hard-chined design, the hull ought to perform differently in the water.

This is one of those topics where there will never be consensus. I built cove down, no staples. It was't messy at all, and was very easy to control both the glue bead, and the strip while putting it in place. I started out gluing just one strip at a time, on each side, but after I got comfortable wi...

Doug - I posted above before looking at your Endeavor pics in the photo gallery. I have a pics that are almost identical, taken south of Killarney last summer. Where were your pics taken?

I also have no rudder on my Endeavour. I have been in some conditions (wind & waves directly at my back) that made it difficult to hold my heading in the empty boat. I also had some less-than-perfect tracking one day last summer while fully loaded with camping gear. The fact that I only had that...

Doug - When I built my kayak, I got clear WRC decking locally for about $5.45/bf, from Aitchison's Lumber in Hamilton. That was in 2002, though -- I don't know what their current prices are. They carried a good inventory of 20' boards, with good grain pattern for cutting strips. It wasn't rough lumb...

I used pine with carpenters glue for my inner stems and ash with carpenters glue for the outer stems (an Endeavour). I've had no problems. The outer stems are covered with epoxy and three layers of glass -- the inner stems are liberally coated with epoxy, but not glass. When I trimmed the glass in t...