all work and no play

 Guy and Izzy are storming ahead with their surf kayaks, they are both at the stage of joining the deck to the hull as you can see in the following pictures, the rest of us are trundling along at a lesser pace. After working hard for a while Izzy decided to have a 50th birthday party. At first we all admired his kayak as it sat on his worktable, but as the party got into high gear and the alcohol flowed , a decision was made to try it out There was no shortage of helping hands as we got the half finished boat into the pool.When this boat is launched there will be no need for champagne as it and its owner are already fully saturated

Guy sent me this picture, perfection

Izzy showing us his creation

It does float now and will float later too

We all had a go at getting in

As Izzy is a little larger than most, he enlarged the kayak and now tries to get in while afloat. 

 Happy birthday Izzy, we all had a great time and it was an unforgettable party.

the problem with building a kayak

The pieces are joined with puzzle joints which have to be glued together before anything else,but if you don't buy a kit, then you have to copy the plans from the paper to the plywood and then cut them out .No matter how pedantic you work there will always be a small bit of imperfection.  This is not really a big problem as the technique is a bit forgiving.

Then they are stitched together with copper wire to force the wood into the kayak shape, and tacked with thickened epoxy, or dookey shmutz.  The copper wires are removed and the whole seam is glued together with dookey shmutz again before being fiberglassed.

Now we don`t have anything like a wooden boat school here in Israel, everyone who builds does it alone. We do have good communication between all the builders and help each other with problems and advice. At this moment there are 5 Matunucks being built simultaneously by our club members. Each one at home and each at his own tempo. It will be interesting to see them out on the water together when they are all finished.

Here's Izzy`s kayak before joining the hull and deck.

So whats the problem?
 Well its like this, whoever builds a kayak, at some stage during the first build asks themselves what would I do differently on my next one. And then you just cant stop, you build one and begin planning the next .
In my case I also loose a covered parking for my car and neglect home maintenance for the duration.
Of the 5 being built at the moment only 1 is a first timer, all the rest have at least one kayak on the water already.And I am trying this one again after having failed in my previous building attempt.
Bring on the big surf.

Paulownia paddles

 I have been hearing about this wood called Paulownia for some time now but only now have had the chance to work with it. Eyal managed to get his hands on a few boards and so we made new Greenland paddles yesterday

The boards were only 3cm thick so I added a strip of Cedar to thicken the loom and add a bit of strength.
The wood is very light and easy to work with, planes easily and has no eyes.Because of the thinner dimensions and the addition we began with making the loom first and then carved the blades freestyle.
Both paddles came out pretty well and we will coat them with epoxy for a bit of strength as the wood seems a bit on the soft side

how to age gracefully

This guy is amazing and
totally inspiring, should be required watching for everybody at all ages

not too much going on , so look back

surfing on friday dec 23 2011 0001 from steve gordon on Vimeo.
Its been a busy  summer so far with a trip to the Greek Isles and then to Alaska, now things are slowing down. the days are hot hot hot and so is the water. It averages about 29c.
Most days the seas are calm with small waves on the shore, and we all long for the storms of winter and a bit of surf.
Looking at old videos to remind myself
Waiting for good surfing days