Bear Mountain Magic Build

Welcome to the new Bear Mountain Builders Forum - an interactive internet service we provide to encourage communication between canoe and kayak builders
Post Reply
WestCoastPaddler
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Contact:

Bear Mountain Magic Build

Post by WestCoastPaddler »

My thirteen year old daughter has recently begun building a Bear Mountain Magic kayak kit. She's been around kayaking and kayak building for the past several years and over the past year or so has been bugging me to let her build her own boat. She's paddled many, many different kayaks over the past few years (since I worked in a paddling shop, I could bring home any boat for her to paddle) but has always said that she gets the most enjoyment from paddling wooden kayaks. So the time has come for her to build her own...

Image

You can follow the build here:

http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/buildin ... p?album=17

And accompanying discussion here:

http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/communi ... php?t=1922
Dan

My Enterprise build is documented at http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/buildin ... p?album=15
My daughter's Magic build is here: http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/buildin ... p?album=17
WestCoastPaddler
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:33 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Contact:

Post by WestCoastPaddler »

It's been a while since updating this build and we've been doing a fair bit of customization to the boat.

Note that the modifications we've made are definitely not in the construction manual and I wouldn't suggest doing this type of modification unless you're 100 percent comfortable knowing that a screw-up could result in having to order a whole new deck.

To bring you up to date I'll copy and paste what I wrote in Maddie's build discussion at westcoastpaddler.com:


Maddie and I were looking at the height of the cockpit coaming and decided that the underside of the deck is too high for Maddie to properly fit out snuggly without having to install huge thigh brace pads. From the bottom of the hull to the underside of the deck at the coaming front is 13 5/16" -- quite high for Maddie's 130lb tall body. The answer of course is to drop the height of the deck so that's exactly what we're going to do -- it will end up being 12 1/4" from hull to underside of deck at the front of the coaming. And we're also going to recess the rear coaming to bring it down a full inch.


The plan. Side view drawing showing the original deck height (top) and the revised front deck and rear recess (bottom):

Image


The dropping the rear of the coaming isn't such a big deal and I have a pretty good idea how to do this, but the front deck is a bit trickier. So I called my pal Mick who just happens to not only know a bit about kayaks but also knows 3D CAD programs. Mick came over to the shop, ran around the boat with a tape measure, went home and e-mailed me some measurements the next day. I transfered those measurements to the panels, connected the points with a batten, and am going to cut them.

So tonight, I've been drawing curves, erasing penciled lines, redrawing curves, erasing some more (repeat 3 or 4 times) for the past couple of hours and now think that I know exactly where I need to cut the deck panels for the recess to look good. It was a bit more of a consideration than one might think -- getting the curves 'just right' takes a bit of time and effort. Walk away and come back in a few minutes only to find that it just doesn't look exactly where I want it. Perhaps the curve should loosen up a bit towards the sheer? Or should it tighten a bit? Maybe it should just be a nice ordinary even curve? Anyway, I think I've got it now but am going to come back in a few days with a fresh eye for one last critical look and then do the cutting.


Deck panels marked for trimming. Note that the deck will basically stay the same except for the pronounced rise before the cockpit. The clamp is at the next station forward from the cockpit -- the panel is only trimmed 1/8 inch at this location -- the next station is only trimmed 1/16 inch and then tapers to no trimming at the bow. The most radical change is the upward curve from the clamp to the front of the coaming. The amount shown to be cut off in the photo will reduce the deck height by 1 5/16" at the coaming:

Image


Recess layed out. I was surprised how long it took to get this to a point where I was happy. I also considered that the tighter the curve is towards the front of the boat, the more difficult it would be to fit the insert piece. I ended up flaring the line out a bit (it follows the coaming opening until about 2 inches from the edge of the panel) to lessen the stress on the insert. I'm pretty sure that this will work fine (fingers crossed):

Image


Well, we took a deep breath and cut the panels today. And we're happy to announce that everything went smoothly and we are very pleased with the results. Thanks to Mick for his input -- it certainly made the job of lowering the deck height a lot easier.

Maddie showing her satisfaction after loosely stitching the deck panels together. You can clearly see the modified and lowered line of the deck in this photo:

Image


Here's a couple of shots of the deck from the bow -- I think it would be pretty difficult for anyone not familiar with the design of the boat to tell that the panels have been modified:

Image

Image


A photo of the coaming recess. The riser piece still needs to be added:

Image

Whew.


There are more pictures posted on Maddie's build journal (on the forth page of thumbnails) in the Boat Building section at http://www.westcoastpaddler.com.

*****
Dan

My Enterprise build is documented at http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/buildin ... p?album=15
My daughter's Magic build is here: http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/buildin ... p?album=17
AlanWS
Posts: 209
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:30 pm
Location: Shorewood, WI

Post by AlanWS »

It looks great! Maddie should be proud of her boat, and you should be proud of Maddie. I like that she's making it exactly as she wants it, including the glitter that is not something I would have thought of.
Alan
Post Reply