Chesapeake 17 Kayak - Fitting Bulkheads and Faring the Hull - February 15, 2015

To get the kayak into the correct shape you need to spread it at the correct point to the beam that is indicated in your plan. The Chesapeake 17 has a beam of 24 inches and the widest point is 112 inches from the bow along the center line from the bow to the stern. I just ran my tape measure from bow to stern and at 112 inch I ran a stick across the boat perpendicular to the the tape measure and marked the sheer clamps on each side. Then I cut a piece of the stock I used to create the sheer clamps to a length that spread the boat to 24 inches wide. 

You can see the spreader stick behind the second level in the picture above. By the way the sticks and clamps are supporting the boat on the horses at this point.

The bulk heads also are placed at distance from the bow along the center line just like the spreader stick and I mark their location that same way I did the location of the spreader stick and while I was at it I also marked the positions of the deck beams.

I installed the fore and aft bulk heads with four wire stitches for each bulkhead, one on each side and two on the bottom. The side ones were about two inches below the sheer clamps. The bottom ones were both very close to the center line of the boat one on each side of the center line.

To get the hull shape correct you want the levels to all be level. If you don't have three levels you can just place long sticks across the boat and adjust the boat until they are all level. You level them by adjusting the boat position above the horses with the clamps. 

When you look from the bow or stern at the level of the sheer clamps the tops of the levels or sticks should all be parallel. Now eyeball the bow and the stern to be sure they are perpendicular to the levels or the sticks going across the hull. If not use your hands to twist them so they are straight up and down.

The hull should be fair now, without changing the shape twist all the wires tight. At the chine where the side and bottom panels come together they should meet with a "V" shape on the outside.  Later this will be filled with thickened epoxy and then sanded smooth with a nice radius to accommodate the fiberglass cloth.

Do everything you can to avoid gaps like this. I can tell you right now it will hardly be noticeable in the finished kayak but I'm going to have a thin brown line here between my panels. It will show because I going to finish the boat with varnish. If I were to paint the hull it would not be noticeable at all. 

Above, the hull as seen for the bow, is all wired up. On the interior you want to push the wires down right against the panels so they will get buried in the next step in the epoxy fillets.

 
The wires above have not been pushed against the panels yet. In the picture below they have, see the difference in the shadows cast by the wires.

The inside is now ready for epoxy fillets and fiber glass tape.