Folding kayak from salvaged materials

I was collecting broken windsurfing booms and other unwanted things made with aluminum tubing so I could make some kayak carts.  After a while I realized that I might be able to collect enough material to make a folding aluminum kayak similar to the ones at Yostwerks --the Sea Otter, for instance.

I think that I currently have enough tubing--if I include the curved parts of the booms--to make a 15' boat. 

Salvaged tubing from windsurfing booms.

Above is a photo (taken in very bad light) of some of the stuff I've collected so far.  On the far right and the far left, respectively, are a carbon fiber boom and a carbon fiber paddle; these would be for the middle and one end of the keel.  There are two 'orphans,' the broken-off parts of a boom set (that I don't have the rest of), and one of these would form the rest of the keel.

There are two complete pairs of booms (including the sliding\adjustable part that attaches to the clew of the sail), and these would be for the gunnels.  I have three lengths of 5' by 1" tubing, and the excess tubing from the keel and gunnels construction, to make a pair of chines.

The bulkheads are going to be made from preformed aluminum parts from a walker and from another thing with a similar shape that I rescued from a dumpster.  (Update: the bulkhead frames at the ends will be made with 1/2" HDPE from the scrap bin at TAP Plastics, and the others will be made from white oak.)  These will take some finagling, but they ought to work.  The cockpit could be the hardest part.  I'm going to try bending some 3/4" tubing from crutches (I have several salvaged pairs of these), and if I can't make that work I'll use wood or make an open-style cockpit.

So, I've got all this stuff... and what's stopping me from starting construction of the frame is the design.  I don't know if I can use one of Tom Yost's designs as-is because I want to include the curved parts of the booms in the design, and Tom's designs use straight tubing with a smaller diameter.  I don't think the tubing I'm using will bend easily enough to be used for one of the Yostwerks' boats.

I'm stuck for now, but eventually I'll come up with a plan that I think is adequate and start cutting stuff up, and if I get that done (without a strongback, since I don't have the materials or budget to build one) I'll start think about how I'm going to skin the boat.

Update:  I got some 7' ipe  deck planks to make a strongback from, but I'm still stalled until I can clear away enough junk to have room to set up the strongback.  I found a possible source for skin material, but I haven't been able to get it home from the junk store.

Update:  I no longer have a place to set up a strongback, so this project has been stalled for months.  I have a set of frames for a Sea Tour 15, but not much else is done.

The next kayak cart

I'm planning to build another kayak cart.  This one will have an aluminum frame that can be configured as a small, portable cart for camping, and as a large, too-big-to-fit-in-the-yak cart for hauling the boat from the parking lot to the shore.  The larger size should be useful for navigating places like the small hill at Eckley where a wider wheel base and a longer frame might add enough stability to keep whole thing from rolling (which can be a problem at Eckley). 

 

Aluminum-frame folding golf bag cart

I'm hoping that I can get by with only the existing frame parts and some stainless steel fasteners.  The wheels (like the ones on my old cart) are some kind of dense foam material that seems to work well on concrete, sand, and gravel, but isn't likely to be long-lasting.  I might try adding bike-tire skins to the wheels so that the outer foam part won't wear out before the inner plastic rim gives out.

The frame of the cart shown in the photo is aluminum with some steel parts and some nylon parts, and with plain steel fasteners.  The wheels are detachable, so if all else fails I will at least have a spare pair of wheels.

Project boats

I'm outfitting an old fiberglass river kayak for flat water.  This boat's a lot like the one that I used for a couple of years before I got the Necky Looksha Sport LV, so I didn't have any reservations about adopting it.

The red river kayak

I got this as an almost-bare hull (it had foot pedals) and I added deck bungees fore and aft of the cockpit, a temporary seat made from an old PFD, a temporary strap-in skeg, carry handles at the bow and stern, and shock cord (from a ruined tent fly) to keep the handles from flopping around.

Deck rigging and the temporary seat

Grab handle on the bow

I also added grab lines along the gunnels.  The forward ends are connected with the same bolts that anchor the foot pedals, and the after ends are just tied around the stern.  I plan to eventually replace the lines (which are currently cheap braided plastic rope from Harbor Freight) and add some kind of anchor points for the stern end of the lines.

Stern rigging

There are holes thru the bow and stern ends for lines to use for carrying the boat.  I used some thin cord thru these holes to anchor the carrying handles because I wasn't able to disassemble the handles and run the attached cords thru the holes in the boat.  This arrangement seems to work--for now.  Like everything but the deck bungees this is likely to be temporary.

The kayak before its first sea trial.

The kayak on the Carquinez Strait.

The Tyne folding kayak

I bought a Tyne wooden-frame folding kayak at a garage sale a couple of months ago.  (The boat was made be Tyne Canoes Ltd., or Tyne Folding Boats Ltd.--I don't know which is correct yet.)  The seller mentioned that it needed work, but neglected to mention that one of the bulkheads was missing.  I've managed to replace or repair many of the parts (both wood parts and brass parts; some of the new parts need more work), and because I was sufficiently distracted by the missing or broken things I didn't realize that the center bulkhead was missing altogether.  I can make a replacement bulkhead, but after having done the rest of the repairs, and thinking I was almost done, finding that a major part of the frame was missing has killed my enthusiasm for the project.  If you want to buy a project boat (wood frame and hypalon skin, for what it cost me so far), let me know.

Note, November 2012:  I bought a Folbot Super at another garage sale.  It's similar to the Tyne, but newer, and complete as-is, so that it's not really a project boat.  I'm probably going to sell one or the other of them if I ever finish making parts for the Tyne and get it on the water.

Ospreys of Mare Island

I have lots of bad shots of nesting birds that I think are ospreys.  The best shots are in my flickr.com photostream.

There are three lighting structures with nests in them, and I think two are shown here.

Photos from the strait

These are a few photos that I didn't feel like posting on flickr.com.

Otters in Suisun Bay.  The photo sucks, but it isn't as bad as most of the wildlife photos I've shot from the kayak.  I have some really lousy pictures of sea lions, a harbor seal, a big group of pelicans, and a few ospreys.

The Eckley wharves

The Mount Fisher at the C&H dock

BTW:  I lost my glasses in the Carquinez Strait near Dillon Point (at the Benicia State Recreation Area) a few days ago.  They had (or should have had) a neoprene strap that might keep them afloat, so they could turn up in Southhampton Bay, Benicia, Glen Cove, Crockett, Port Costa, Mare Island, the Farallons...let me know if you find them.

And:
I found an A's cap in the Strait; let me know if you lost one.

Golf bag kayak cart again

The kayak cart is beginning to look like a small boat trailer.

This is the latest version of the same golf-bag cart that I've been using for a couple of years.  Now it has scrap wood supports made to fit the bottom of the kayak, bike-tire friction pads, wooden cleats, and nylon cord loops to hook bungees onto.  It seems to be easier to use this way, although it's heavier and bulkier than before.

 The long handle is more of a nuisance than a help so I'm going to cut that down next, or modify it so that it doesn't drag on the ground when I'm trying to navigate the hill next to the beach at Eckley.

A stowable kayak cart

This is a kayak cart that can be broken down and stored in the kayak.  Most of the parts are from a junk store (but can be replaced with off-the-shelf hardware, if necessary), and most of the pieces will float (once the internal foam plugs are added).

 The cart was made with common hand tools--a hand drill, a coping saw, a file, scissors, a utility knife, various clamps, and a couple more that I can't think of right now.  The materials are 3/4" and 1" PVC pipe and fittings, inner tubes, a couple of plastic wheels, a fiberglass tent pole, a skinny fiberglass rod, rubber bands, and a few other bits and pieces.

The cart was constructed to fit snugly on either end of my kayak.  The cart's shape was determined in part by the curved PVC conduit pieces that I found at Urban Ore.  I used ¾" PVC tees and 1" tees for most of the rest of it because it turned out that ¾" parts fit snugly into 1" parts.  Some of the parts are skinned with bicycle inner tubes so that the boat won't slide off the cart, and so that the connecting pins are held in place by the inner tubes, and because I thought it looked kinda cool.

In the above image you can see the tent-pole pins that keep two 3/4" tees connected to two 1" tees.  The pins are drilled so that they can be leashed to the cart, and some vinyl tubing was forced onto one end of each pin to make it easier to pull the pins out.  The other connecting pins are pushed under the blue rubber bands for storage.

The cart in a nylon bag.  It fits thru the hatch (on the left) even tho it looks too bulky.

Everything is stored in a nylon ditty-bag when the cart is disassembled, and it all fits under the rear deck--although it takes up more room than I expected, and I might end up lashing the cart's frame to the bow or the stern so that I'll have room in the aft compartment for camping gear.

The cart seen head-on.  The thick part right in the middle is pipe insulation.

The wheels have plastic bushings and plain-steels bolts for axles.  I think the wheels might be improved  by gluing some pipe insulation around the circumference, and then gluing shortened bike tires over that, so that the tires will be wider and get better traction, but I don't know if I'll ever bother to do that.

I'll post more details (although most of them aren't obvious from the photos) when I've got the necessary photos, and if it seems like anyone ever looks at this page