Tyne assembly part 2

How to assemble the Tyne tandem folding kayak, continued.  I'll add some photos when I have them.

The almost-assembled Tyne.  The coaming still needs work, and the forward seat back isn't done yet, and there are lots of other things that need attention.

To recap:

• Assemble the stern\back half of the frame and shove it into the skin;

• Do the same with the forward\front half of the frame.  The parts will overlap in the middle of the boat.

The Folbot Super came with a strap for holding the parts of each half together while they were put into the skin.  A length of nylon webbing will work if you tie the ends together.  It shouldn't be hard to make to a strap the right length with a loop at each end for this job.

• Now: take out ribs FRONT 3 and BACK 3 (if they were already put in to make the assembly easier).  Lift the the center ends of the floor boards up and look under them, and you should be able to tell how they lock together.  Put the ends together (still raised) and press them down towards the bottom of the boat.  Push firmly but don't force them; tug on the skin, push the floorboards and release and push again, and so on, to get the frame into the ends of the skin, and keep doing this until the floorboards are flat and locked together.

• Lock the sides together:  pull the ends on one side towards the center on the boat, and fit the short tab at the end of the aft side board into the notch under the metal thingy on the forward board.  Repeat with the other side boards.

• Get the stringers into their notches.  Make sure that there is a sliding ferrule on the end of one stringer on each side.  You need to put the ends of the stringers together and slide the ferrule from one over the end of the other.  It might be a little easier to get the ends together if you pull them away from the skin, and if you slide the ferrule out a couple of millimeters so that the other end can slip into it.

The sliding stringer ferrule.

• Put in all the ribs, then check to make sure everything is latched and the stringers are in their notches, and get ready to put the coaming on.

• The heads of the bolts in the coaming boards go thru the grommets in the deck and onto the brackets on top of the ribs.  Each of the screw heads on the coaming should go thru a grommet.  If the boat's skin has shrunk then this part can be a headache.  Spring clamps can be useful to hold things together.

Coaming assembly.  I still need to make the coaming brackets for the center rib.

I haven't managed to get the coaming done yet--the grommets, bolts, and brackets don't seem to all line up at the end of the cockpit, so I need to tweak the parts some more. And I kind of think there's supposed to be a cap on the front of the coaming, like there is on the Folbot, but I guess I can do without it.

A look into the cockpit.  You should take a moment to feel sorry for all those people who don't look at my blog and will never get to see this.