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.

The Tyne tandem assembly instructions part one

The is a panoramic view of the assembled hull (without one or two parts), compiled in Photoshop, with the rough spots of the image intact so that it looks like some parts are disjointed. 

The almost-complete hull

It should be clear when putting the hull together how parts are connected, so I won't mention that if it doesn't seem necessary.  Assembly of the stringers and coaming  is a bit confusing, so I'll try to make things clear in the assembly instructions.

Hull parts list:

• four hinged side (gunnel?  upper hull?)  assemblies;

• two hinged floor\keel(\keelson?) assemblies;

• eight stringers total: four are attached at one end to a stem piece, four are loose, and two of the loose stringers have sliding ferrules at one end;

• seven ribs\frames, one with a seat back attached;

• two stem parts--one bow and one stern;

• four side coaming boards and one backboard;

• two deck supporting rails;

•  a seat back supported by the coaming over the center frame

One of the BACK floor boards slides over one of the FRONT floorboards in the middle, so the BACK assembly should probably be the first one in.  I think the assembly goes like this, if we start with the parts labeled BACK:

Unfold and lay out the BACK floor\keel (on the left in the above photo);

Add the stern stem piece--it looks like the bow piece shown on the right in the next photo, and has two stringers attached to it;

The bow assembly, because I don't have a photo of the stern assembly.

Add BACK frames 1-3.  The Folbot Super assembly instruction manual says to leave the parts that correspond to frames BACK 1 and BACK 2 off until the assembly has been stuffed into the skin--I don't know if that will help here or not.

Add two stringers if you have some way to make them stay together--duct tape will work, but take it off again as soon as can or it will leave gummy stuff on the parts.  You don't have to worry about whether to use the dowels with sliding ferrules or not because you can match them up when you assemble the other half.

Stuff the assembly into the skin as far as you can, tugging on the skin and swearing.  Have an assistant climb into the skin and push on the assembly while you shout directions from a safe distance.

Repeat everything with the FRONT assembly.  There will probably be some overlap in the middle when both assemblies are in.

I'll try and finish the rest of the instructions when I actually have enough of the boat repaired to try putting the hull into the skin.

(A note about the coaming parts: they attach to the frames as show in this photo, with the head of the bolt in the cupped slot:

 I don't think they go on until the hull halves has been joined in the skin.  I'll move this note to part two of the instructions if that ever gets done.)