Day 9

Day 9 was coaming day and with about 5 minutes to spare (before the neighbours started throwing cats as me, I finished.... well sort of finished.  

Hard to believe but the day started with a walk to town to buy a(nother) tube for my bike.  Thinking back the day actually it started with the brilliant idea that I should ring the the Rasdex people who make one of the brands of spray skirts on the market.  Not only were they really helpful but they operate out of Christchurch and invited me to their factory to measure up a standard skirt.  So I did and came away with a paper profile plus good advice from Rob, the owner.  Hence the need for the tube for my bike.  

Later in the afternoon I cut out the coaming based on the spray skirt profile.  Next time I will take a little more care and not try to rush it.  The coaming will look great, once it is finished and all the crooked bits hidden.  

As the coaming is only about 750 long and the cockpit gap is about 850 long, there is a gap.  DOH!.  I therefore needed to devise a crafty way to hold the front of the coaming up and attached to the masik (profile 4).  I think the plan is for the coaming to be unattached to the frame and simply held in place by the kayak skin.  This, I felt was a bit risky and I could see myself ripping the skin two days away from civilisation and having to duck tape up the whole think.  Nope.  Another time perhaps.  Anyway my crafty plan has also provided me a small but strong 'deck' just in front of the cockpit which, I believe, will be a useful place to mount a compass.

I am following one of Tom's many coaming designs and will have a go at assembling it on day 11.

I also started thinking about the need for a paddle.  They start at about $100 which seems like an awful lot of money.   In the shop I pretended that I was really interested in the $300 ones though I am sure I stopped breathing which I checked the price tags (which are quite small).  So..... I will build my paddle as well.  I will build it based on Inuit styling though, by the time I am finished, it will be unrecognisable compared to the original.  

So.  Day 9 finished with the coaming cut out and the kayak frame added to so that the coaming could be attached.

A couple of views of the bottom two section of the coaming, set up on the frame.  I have set it up so that it sits on No5 profile (at the rear of the cockpit) and the extension piece from the No 4 profile at the front of the cockpit.  Also note the two little thingies at the side of the cockpit to give extra support to the coaming when entering or exiting.  They are attached to the gunwale and first stringer down.

It was dark when I finished for the evening and I was working by the light of a street light.  It is quite handy when the garage has no roof or walls to restrict light.  :-)