Wednesday, April 7, 2010

FAILURE

Time to admit defeat, my newest kayak building project has ended in grand failure.
When trying to join the hull and deck of my surf kayak, the discrepancy was so great that even with the help of clamps, as shown in the building manual, I could not get the two halves to meet properly, and eventually the pieces of wood began to crack under the strain .





At this point I decided that  the project was not going to finish well and decided to call it a day.
Luckily I had an axe handy for the final moment.




Reasons for failure.
I think the main reason was the incorrect type of plywood. In the instructions Nick mentions marine BS1088-grade okoume plywood and urges not to use anything else. Unfortunately this type and grade is not available here in Israel and I tried to use  whatever I could. This was the major cause of failure as  the shape didnt work out as planned as warned in the manual.
I think that it would be better to buy the wood cut out as a kit as this will be much more accurately cut than can be done by hand after tracing the plans onto the plywood sheets. Because of the  sharp curves and tight angles in the boat the accuracy here seems a critical point and I could not be as accurate as needed.
How do I feel about this failure, well it was an interesting experiment, I lost a bit of time and a number of hours of work and the cost of the materials, but all in all I had fun until the last moment , and at least I have my Petrel which is a great kayak and wonderful in the waves too.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve

שבע יפול צדיק וקם...

We learn from experience. Better break the kayak in the shack rather than in the surf zone....

avital said...

יש הרבה אומץ בקבלת ההחלטה- "עד כאן!" כמה טוב שזה קרה בקאיק הששי ולא בראשון.. כך יש סיכוי גבוה לשביעי, שמיני, תשיעי.. וכך הלאה...

Rachel Einav said...

קיאק רשע, טוב שהרגת אותו בזמן. תרא לך מה הוא היה עושה לך בגלים אם כבר כאן הוא לא ממושמע
ר.

Silbs said...

I am impressed by both your skills and healthy attitude. I hope they are contagious.

Unknown said...

thank you all for your nice comments and support

Oded Davidovitch said...

Hey Steve.
Well..I really hope that you'll make a second attempt,or..at list buy a surf kayak. Kayak surfing is an outstanding experience...

Lee said...

I send much sympathy from Canada.....everyone I've shown said " oh NO!" or cringed. Im with Sibs...I wish I had you attitude!

karel said...

Oh well steve better next time ,good thing we can learn from our mistakes in life and laugh about them afterwards like the axe part

hadas said...

אוי ואבוי...
:-(
אבל...
:-)

Unknown said...

Even using the right wood it's the hardest part of the build, I had to improvise a little to get mine together. Two guys, blocks and clamps more stitching and a little modification to stitching. Think being more accurate on the shaping would help and I learned a lot from the experience.

The Petrel is my next project

Unknown said...

Kaprun, thanks for your comment, how about a picture, I am considering going for it again.Btw the Petrel is one fantastic kayak.