The "Onkalaker" Laker 13

[OnkaBob]

A few more shots - not sure if they tell the story any better.



Bottom of cover is in.


All in and ready to turn to lock position.


This is in the unlocked position.


This one is locked.

Have a look at earlier posts to see all the pieces cut out.

[OnkaBob]

Still crawling along

Seat supports are in and the plan is to seal the seat and have a small hatch in it so it can be opened during storage - may also be handy for putting small items while paddling.



Should really be fitting deck now but am worried about gaps as in the pic below. The hull is wider than the deck about a quarter of the way along from both the bow and stern but narrower in the centre. The only way I can see to cope with this is to squeeze the hull sections that are wide while the glue sets and then trim off any excess deck width at the centre.

So, does anyone have any tips on how to squeeze the hull while gluing? Because it's tapered in 2 directions and needs to be held in place with glue on the edges while the deck is positioned I can see it becoming very messy if not done right.

Also, is this normal with S&G or should it have been closer to start with?

[hairymick]

G'day Bob,

First up, DON'T PANIC! MATE.

The gap is perfectly normal. All it is is that your hull panels have settled a bit. When you stitch your deck down, you need to centralise it on the apex of your bulkheads and deck supporting cross members first, then stitch down at the deck to side seams. I like to start at the centre seam and work outwards towards the ends. Alternating from side to said as I go, so that both sides are continually under the same pressure.

Have a look at my Okwata build. I did the stitches with 50mm (2") masking tape and it worked pretty well and was quicker than wire stitches. If you decide to go this way, have plenty of tape on hand.

[Oldsparkey]

As Mick told you , stitch them together , or use tape around the boat to pull them in. If you don't want to do either then just fill the gap with fillet material ( providing there is a backing under it to hold the fillet ).

My suggestion is the same as Micks , stitch them together and then epoxy them. When they set up pull the stitches and glass it over for more durability.

Chuck.

[jem]

If needed, you can use some straps around the hull to pull it together.Place some blocks under the straps in the areas that need extra attention.

I think it'll work out fine. Take a break, come back to it later. Lot of times that pause allows you to get an idea or maybe spot something that you can adjust.

[OnkaBob]

Thanks to all for the quick replies. Mick, after surviving the night of glassing the hull there is not much that will panick me now .
Matt, I've had a bit of a play with straps, shock cord, blocks and weights - they all help but have their problems, mostly due to the hull taper.

The thing that worried me most was trying to put the deck on with wet glue on the top of the bulkheads and shear clamps. This is what the instructions say to do. I gather from your replies that it is not necessary to apply glue first - the deck can be taped on and then glued/filleted/glassed as required.

This sounds a lot easier and looks like the way to go. It should be possible to glass the joints from the inside afterwards if needed, although it won't be easy. (Have a small amount of experience attaching a glass canoe deck this way.) The other alternative to this is an extra layer of glass on the outside before glassing the deck. Will think this over while filleting etc as I am not sure it will even need this extra reinforcement. In a moment of impatience I decided to try the boat for fit so put it on a rubber mat on the floor and sat in it. Was surprised at how solid and strong it felt, and the fit is going to be very good

[OnkaBob]

Well I lined up the deck and glued it onto the bulkheads only as a start. Then a couple of nights ago glued down the bow and stern tips.
Last night discovered the stern had lifted because the hot weather is making the adhesive in the tape soft. So I got this .....


and cut the glue out and did it over again. This time I decided to use weights (as far as I know heat doesn't affect gravity) like this.


Got home today and found it was just a little too high for my liking so cut and glued it AGAIN .


We'll see how this turns out.....

[Bruce36549]

Hi Bob,

Your laker is looking great. How did you resolve the issue of gluing the deck to the frames? I'm curious about what I have to look forward to. I'm thinking that placing blocks on the underside of the deck as per Mick's Okwata build might be a good way to go.

Bruce

[OnkaBob]

Thanks Bruce, I just smeared as much glue as possible along the top of the frame and taped the deck down, then smoothed out the excess with a gloved finger. It's not very strong at this stage but I will fillet and run glass tape along the joint.

The block method would be quicker and easier. In fact, if I remember rightly, the instructions (or another page on the site) show to add 1 or 2 more thicknesses of ply along the top of the frame to strengthen it and give more area on top.

I'm trying to leave out every possible gram at this stage - even though I probably added a lot of unnecessary grams when glassing the hull. The advice here is great but for some things there is no substitute for hands on learning and sadly experience is still the thing you get just after you need it .

[OnkaBob]

Bow end of the deck stayed put this time. Put a few tacks along each side and will let this set then remove all straps etc and see how the lines look - should be OK to fully fillet this time.

There is significant overhang of the deck on each side near the centre as mentioned earlier.



Tried putting a spreader inside to bring the hull sides out a bit but that caused the deck to lift in the cockpit area and create a gap of around 5mm. Leaving it as is and then trimming the deck will mean less flare but I'm guessing (hoping) it will not have much effect on stability. Overall beam will be around 1" less than spec and the amount of overhang on each side is fairly even.