the end is in sight at last

Wed morning paddling through the rocks before going home to work on my kayak

The time has come to join hull and deck after  too long a time of not progressing. The parts had changed shape a bit and needed to be coaxed back to the original sizes with clamps tape and rope

I have filled the ends with epoxy already and now have joined them permanently with more epoxy, then I am aligining the sides and taping them together.

Once everything is well aligned I will begin fiberglassing the inside seam with tape and epoxy, then its time for the outer seam and finishing. There is still quite a bit of work to do, make seats and backrests, attach footbraces and final sanding and varnish but at least it looks like a boat now and the rest will go quite quickly.

names and faces have been changed to protect the innocent

Rescue time,if you paddle in rough water you will eventually capsize.Thats good incentive to learn to roll

Also its good to practice rescues

Heres one of my less used kayaks,it hangs in my garage over my workshop and collects dust

Today we took it to the water to get rid of some of the dust

The sea was a bit rough with nice waves for playing in

Eli had a grand time surfing

So did I, and my kayak got a good rinse. Tomorrow promises more of the same with 2m seas. Watch this spot for news

surfing,landing in surf and rolling

When the seas is a bit rougher than normal getting in and out through the surf takes a bit of skill. You can only learn this by being there and playing in the water

The more you play the better you get

Today we played in the waves at the rock

If you cant roll you need a friend

I love seeing lots of kayaks on the water
more pictures here   http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x201/stevegordon/in%20the%20surf%20saturday%20august%206%202011/

surfing video,surfskis, sup`s and seakayaks

surfs up....again

Hadas signals the safe passage between the reefs when the sea is high

The Surfskis all came with us today

We had a smaller group due to the high seas

And then we went to play in the waves

tried surfing with a surfski, its very different to my Petrel and takes a bit of getting used to at first. Its light as a feather

If you play in the surf a good roll is essential, otherwise you need help

And then we received our book about our trip to the Eolian Isles in Sicily, what a great day.

The Guillemot Fast Double continued

Building a kayak is a long term project, it takles about 150 and up hours depending on your ability and the finish you want. Also thats not 150 continuous hours, its free time hours if you have a day time job. Things get in your way too, like travelling to foreign lands for kayak touring, having visitors and weather thats just too hot to go outside and work. So the project can take a good few months

Today we had nice swells and waves, so I only got to kayak building after the morning paddle

I`m a the cockpit rim stage, and today I epoxied the rim to the coaming. This is the classic picture and caption which always says you cant have enough clamps

Now I have to sand it smooth and then give it a cover of epoxy and fiberglass. It needs to be pretty strong as it usually has to deal with a lot of pressure. The day temprature is pretty hot and by the afternoon the epoxy had set hard enough to remove all the clamps and  do some rough sanding and  I also managed to get the forward cockpit rim on too. Its a double and so everything comes in pairs. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

touring the country with family

Avi took us on a jeep trip to the Golan Heights

We stopped at the Syrian Bridge for a fish massage

When you dangle your feet in the water the little fish come and eat the dead skin . Feels strange

And of course I took them all kayaking,some for the first time

My daughter Michal loved playing in the waves



So did I, in a sit on top



And Stu took some nice pictures until the sun went down and we had to go home