Chesapeake 17 Kayak - still creating the panel blanks - January 11, 2015

I haven't been in Geiger's Boat Shop for a couple of day. Today I had a chance to create another butt joint to make another long panel blank. 

Here is a picture on the okoume indicating it's quality as marine plywood. If you are going to build a boat from plans don't skimp on the wood. Quality okoume must meet standards that eliminate any void between the layers or plys that make up the sheet of plywood.

This is the butt joint I created today. You can see the butt joint I created prior to this in the back ground. I trimmed off the excess fiberglass tape from each side of the joint with a utility knife. The new joint is all clamped down so it drys flat. Tomorrow I'm going to make two butt joins at the same time.

I'll have the blanks almost created completely then but because this is a 17 foot boat I need to add a piece that is a little longer than a foot to the end of all four blanks to get the length that is needed. Hopefully by this coming Friday I'll be able to lay out the actual panel designs for the bottom and side panels.

Buy the way I have looked carefully at both sides of the panels. I'm creating them so the nicer looking side is opposite the side with the fiberglass tape. The fiberglass tape but joints will be on the inside of the kayak and the fiberglass cloth will cover the outside of the hull giving it all the integrity it needs.