Herkimer & Perkins: Building Backyard Boats in Buffalo, NY

My Backyard Boats:

The Quark

Will it float? Yes it will, now

24 March 03: When the kids in the neighborhood walk by, while I'm building on a boat in my garage, they always ask, sooner or later, "Will it float?" The Quark will, now, because the hull is done. Yesterday, I put on the external chines, and this evening I installed the bottom piece of plywood with trusty Elmer's glue and boat nails. The boat is a lot more seaworthy-looking than I had thought it would be, and I'm looking forward to using it now that I can see it will accommodate an adult of my size. The next step is to trim the bottom and soften (or radius) the chine joint, then apply epoxy tape on the outside of the chine. Then thickened epoxy on the interior joints, then two thwarts, and a skeg, and a paint job. I'm thinking about yellow on the outside and bright on the inside and the sheer clamps.

Time spend so far: Add to the 13 hours total to date 2 hours for the chines and 2 hours for the bottom, for a total so far of 17 hours.

The Quark building log

After the clines were in place, I had a spot on each side forward of the temporary form where the plywood was standing 1/2 inch proud. If I had done the stitch-and-glue approach, this may not have been a problem. However, with the external chine, which was a fair curve, by nature, I cut the plywood to match the chine. There also was a slightly less noticeable proud stretch on each side aft of the form, which I also faired with the chine.
Chines are glued and nailed in place, with light clamping pressure. Love that new Elmer's glue!
Bottom piece of plywood nailed and glued in place. There was not more than 1/2 inch to play with because I used the external chine option.
I'm thinking that the hull shape is reminiscent of a dory rather than a kayak. I call this a kayak because I'll be using double paddles instead of a single -- which would make this a canoe. I read that somewhere, as a way to distinguish between canoes and kayaks, by focusing on the style of paddle used.
Detail shot shows sheer clamps and external chines. I milled the sheer clamps oversize by 1/4 inch and the chines are under by a 16th. This had to do with monkeying with a 2x4 and making some slight miscalculations. I'll round the sheer clamps a lot, but I'm not sorry about the extra material. Can't hurt.