When I got my first kayak I tried making a spray skirt, even tho I really had no idea what I was doing, and I started making a
homemade wood paddle, just for the sake of doing it, I guess. I had only a slightly better idea of how to make a paddle than I had of how to make a spray skirt.
The shafts are from closet poles, and are probably douglas fir. The blades are from marine plywood left over from an old project, and the blades' shape was traced from a cheap aluminum paddle. The blades are epoxied to the shafts, and have a few stainless wood screws as well. A length of aluminum tubing from an old paddle if fitted to the end of one shaft so that I'd have a two-part paddle. The wood finish is tung oil, and there's epoxy on the blade tips.
Although I started it a few years ago it's never been completed. The shafts ought to be thinned, and maybe the blades should be reshaped, and I don't want to bother with it.
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| The back of one paddle blade. |
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| The unfinished wood paddle. |
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| The aluminum tubing joint thing. The inner-tube cover was meant to retain a pin or clip that would hold the other shaft in. |
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| The marine ply I used was old and stained, but doesn't look too bad. |
I started making a
greenland paddle just so I could try using one when I was finished. I used maple, poplar, walnut, and teak scraps that were already hanging around, but next time I won't use as much hardwood. The redwood was from a local home-improvement place.
This paddle (like the other one) gets put aside for long periods, and probably won't be done anytime soon.
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Ugly scarf joint. If the paddle ever gets done I might put
something on the middle of the shaft to hide it.
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The
homemade spray skirt was put aside when I got a nylon touring skirt, and I've been waiting for another old wetsuit to come along so I'll have enough material to finish the waist.
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| Homemade spray skirt (with a too-small tunnel) that came with my first hard-shell kayak. |
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| Homemade, still unfinished, inside-out spray skirt made from an old wetsuit. |
The
camera stand should be plugged with some kind of closed cell foam so it will float. I'll probably use some foam sheets from an old life jacket for that, and then test it to see if it's buoyant enough to keep the camera from sinking. If it isn't I can add foam to the outside of the stand, or put the
camera PFD on the camera's lanyard.
The steel spring in the cheap plastic C-clamp will probably be ruined by salt exposure, but the clamp was already broken, so I don't really care. The camera will be closer to the clamp (and so a bit less prone to going out of alignment) when I find a stainless or nylon screw the right length. (And a retaining clip to keep the screw from falling out.)
I could also put the bilge pump on the deck forward of the cockpit, and clamp the camera to that instead of using a stand. I think the convenience of using the stand will offset the annoyance of having extra gear, and the camera won't be in the way if I need the pump.
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| Camera, clamp, and PVC stand. |
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By having the camera mounted on the clamp I can also clamp it to the end of
the paddle and use it for self-portraits at more than arm's length. |
And there's other stuff that I just never bother to write up, like the kayak seat made from an old PFD, the Seascape .5 project boat, canoe repairs, the folding kayak project, and re-purposed gear. Is anyone else interested in that?
