New York, and the "Freedom Tower"

Just a "routine" trip to NYC, but this time I took more pictures than usual, and have some observations. A couple of years ago, a friend & I went to the Museum Of Natural History, and Central Park. We agreed that New York didn't seem like New York anymore-some kind of Big Brother Lockdown going on. The "color" of Central Park was gone-no busking musicians, jugglers, weirdos, etc.-just the feeling that everything was being watched.
Checked into The Jane Hotel (google it, its nifty) in the evening, and decided for a walk on The High Line (google that too ;))

This is a little more like it. A performance artist, posing stock-still. The passers-by's reactions were the most fun, they seemed to find it hilarious.
Another view from The Line. Its amazing how different familiar streets look from 2 stories up:

On to the nearby Hudson River Park. Lots of cyclists and joggers. Great evening view of the Financial District:

Lots of walking. Walked around the west Village, looking for a place to eat. Found a funky little pizzeria on 4th St. (?), and had 2 Sicilian slices for $7.
Up early the next morning (for New York). Drove down to the Financial District, and ate breakfast at McDonald's. Too early for The Tower, so checked out Trinity Church, and a very neatly groomed old graveyard.
Back to the WTC area. The area has a very strong police presence these days. Cops in kiosks, cops on the street telling you which sidewalk you can use.

Wow. If they want to close Vesey St. instantly, they can do it.

At the Memorial, the South Pool. I have mixed feelings about this. Its dramatic & beautiful architecture, and the water has a soothing sound. From where you can stand, you can only see the water falling literally, into a Black Hole. This is supposed to symbolize "loss", but I find it negative, as if the victims have disappeared into oblivion & nothingness. I would rather have seen something that symbolizes, regeneration rebirth, something rising perpetually. The "Freedom Tower" is supposed to do that, but after visiting it, it seems to speak more of fear than defiance.
On to the aforementioned.

It looks nice in the morning light. It was just opening, and there were only a few dozen people around. Now, I hadn't been up in a large skyscraper since 9/11, and I seemed to think it would be a matter of passing Security, buying the ticket, and going up, but they control your every move these days. Even without crowds, there seemed to be a lot of waiting in line to pass, for no apparent reason. 

There was a nifty place (they start you out in the basement) where you walk through bedrock, and are informed about the construction process.On to the elevators.

There was a high-tech video display that played on the walls of the elevator, showing the development of New York as you rise, It reaches the "present" when you reach the top. Interesting, but a 100-story elevator ride in 60 seconds is trippy enough without it.

When I got off the elevator, I wanted very badly to walk around and shake off the "land sickness". but we were funneled into another waiting area, where a video was projected onto a curtain. The curtain was raised briefly to give a live view.

Then it got irritating. After being released from this line, The tour guides informed the crowd of an i-phone application that would explain all the sights from a location in the observatory! They even lent out tablets. There are no printed signs about the view. So, I thought that a 100-story view of New York City might actually make people put the darned thing down for a few minutes, but nahhh...

Then it got a little more irritating. Unbeknownst to me, many people had purchased some "photo at the top" type of thing, and again stood in a line. I didn't know what was going on-was it a Mandatory Mug Shot? I said I didn't want a picture, so they told me to "move on". I almost got mouthy, but checked myself-figured that any aberrant behavior might get me tazed or worse. 

Free at last! The view was amazing, and the observatory was more psychologically comfortable that the old WTC's. 

Done

On to my favorite lake for a trial. The AMC was also having some kind of kayak class there, and I met a lady who'd built a CLC Skerry.

Not bad! For the first few minutes, I wondered if it was tracking straight, but I suspected that the seat wasn't centered properly. It wasn't, so I made the adjustment. The skeg works! Not only does it go up & down easily, but it really does make the boat track better. 
This one's a little slower than the OI, but I expected that.

Outfitting

Normally the easiest & most fun part of the build, this  was where the mistakes-to-be-corrected kicked in.
First, the parts that went well: I got the skeg control cable in place, and it actually does what its supposed to do! 

The skeg "deployed":

The seat came out well, and I covered it with the traditional black spandex.
The glue-on footbrace mounting studs looked like they were too far aft because they were. I removed them with the heat gun & a chisel easily-almost too easily, making me wonder how strong an arrangement it was in the first place. That gave me some patch & repair work to do on the inside. I thought it would be an even bigger mess to put them in again, and harder to do with the boat closed up, so I decided to revert to through bolts. I carefully marked the location of the bulkhead, measured, and drilled into the foam bulkhead! Tried to make it work by carving out a space for the footbrace, but ended up removing the bulkhead, and going for a new plywood one.
Grab loops. I went for a bit of bamboo:

Sanding Outdoors

Last year, I discovered that it is much easier to wet-sand a kayak outdoors, so I did it again:

It was also the first time I saw this 'yak and the OI in the same view. This is a wide-angle view, so its slightly exaggerated, but again, Vaclav's design is much higher in volume than I expected.
I also varnished the Cape, and re-varnished the OI, side-by-side, on sawhorses, in the basement. It was a tight fit, and I think I'd have done a better job on each if I hadn't done it that way. However, I think I'm less picky about perfect finishes than I used to be, after years of using these kayaks.
BTW, the "minor repairs" on the OI look fine after finishing.

OI Minor Repair

I'll have two kayaks this summer: my Outer Island I, on its 3rd season, and the new Cape Ann Storm LT. I brought the OI outside to do some minor repairs:

A patch of 4 oz. glass where the original sheathing was starting to wear. There are some dark spots where water penetrated, but I think it will be o.k. 
Surprisingly easy to work on this outdoors.

Knee Braces & Cockpit Rim

I painted the cockpit rim, again in my favorite Jolly Green. It fit into the boat rather well. I glued it in with dookie, using some microballons, hoping that they might expand while curing, making a snug fit.

The knee braces are separate pieces of plywood. Because of the way that the rim fits into the boat, I found it easier to do it that way. I glued them in with more dookie, and they will be painted to match the rim.

Foam Bulkheads

Most every build, I try a new technique or two. Sometimes, its an innovation, other times, it represents "doing it the hard way". This time, it was bulkheads cut from 3" minicel foam:

These were much easier than I expected. The compress-ability of the foam gives some leeway-you can simply push the bulkhead in until it fits. There are some gaps, but I think I filled them adequately with caulk. Much easier than whittling a piece of plywood until it fits, big fillet of dookie, etc. 
Side brace plate visible on the left.

Cockpit Rim

I decided to go for a fiberglass rim again. This time, I went for fat 10 oz. fiberglass. The stuff is hard to wet out with epoxy, which it drinks up greedily, but I hope it will build the thickness up faster.

I used various rolls of tape to hold the foam down. I used 5 layers of 10 oz. glass, and finished with one layer of 4 oz. It appears to be thicker this time.
I also cut the hatches out today. The usual amount of shaping and correction.

Skeg Control Box

I had tried routing a fancy control box from a single block of wood, but I really couldn't get satisfactory results. I ended up using the box I made according to the plans, made of many little pieces of plywood.

 Filleted & glassed to the underside of the deck. I turned the boat upside down to do this, and made an amazingly silly mistake:forgot that left is right/vice versa when upside down, and installed it on the left side! I was concerned about not interfering with the knee braces, and put it rather far forward. I hope that I can reach it.

Had a little trouble finding where to drill into the cavity, and nicked the box a little. Repaired it with dookie fill, and routed out the hole. Doesn't look bad.

Back To The Deck

My random orbit sander bit the dust. I replaced it with a big, 6" job that has variable speeds, and two diameter-of-orbit settings. I always thought it easier to do a small job with a big tool, than vice versa. The new tool really made sanding the deck a breeze.
Glassing the deck went easily, except for one glitch: I discovered that the 30" glass wouldn't cover the deck the widest spot! I improvised with a patch, that I think will blend in o.k.
I think I may have finally gotten the hang of saturating fiberglass, after five builds. The trick seems to be to saturate the glass evenly, always using enough resin to fully saturate the glass. Whatever it is, it must be one of those "indescribable knacks", because no matter what I read, I had to get the hang of it myself!

Closing The Clam

I did, this time, use the spreader sticks of the recommended size in the hull, after glassing the interior. It may have helped a little, but the hull still shrank.
I resorted to using the spreader sticks, tethered with strings, to spread the hull. Oddly, the hull was wider  than the deck, near the bow. I resorted to using two Big "ol Clamps to pull it back together: 

This time, instead of using the pre-made 9 oz. tape, I made a long 2" strip of 4 oz. glass for the inside seam. The usual scramble to wet it out with epoxy.

Back To The Hull

Opening the slot for the skeg. This was fairly easy to do with the router. It looked straight from the inside, but it looks off from the outside. I think this may be because the strips were thicker on one side, however, when I insert the blade, it looks straight. We will have to see...

Glassing the hull. This time, I tried using plenty of epoxy to saturate. Lots of it ended up on the floor. I avoided trying to "push" the resin into the glass, and there doesn't appear to be any ripples.
I also figured that the only places I ever get any abrasion damage (barring mishaps) are the bow & stern, so I went for 3 layers of fiberglass in those places, the rest is a single layer 

The Interior

I decided to do lots of the fairing work with the boat still on the strongback. It seemed like a lot  of work this time around. Strange, how different parts of the project increase or decrease in difficulty each build.

The deck was easy to remove. The hull, of course, wasn't. I ended up having to saw the beam in half again, but fortunately, nothing was glued together this time. I was thinking about saving the forms & strongback intact, but on second thought, the whole thing is too massive & heavy to have lying around. I'll just save the forms.
Lots of grinding, scraping. etc. on the interior. As usual, it got pretty thin in some spots, but I just "went for it" with a 40 grit sanding disc.
I had a bit of a revelation while trying to fair out the ends. On my stitch-and-glue builds, the instructions have you make a fillet, then apply the glass, and wet it out with epoxy. It occurred to me that I could do this in the areas that I couldn't reach, and the thin spots.

Worked like a charm! You can see some haziness where the filler mixed with the clear epoxy, but the whole thing came together well, with few or no bubbles. To think: I had been doing a fillet, then laboriously grinding it back down. I'll probably do this on the underside of the deck, too.

I did the footbrace kit as on the last build. Pretty easy, once I figured out where to put them.

The skeg box glued in. I decided to try to center it  on the keel, instead of putting the whole box through the hull. The string is there to align it to the boat, but I did a lot of adjusting & tweaking to make it look straight. I also put it somewhat forward of where the instructions recommend. 
Glassing the underside of the deck went fairly easily. I used the putty-fill technique as above, with good results

The Deck

My first two attempts at a deck design didn't work out how I planned them, so I fell back on a Big Skunk Stripe down the center:

Still interesting how the size & shape of the boat seem to change with progress. Its starting to look like a short, fat, kayak.

Flipping 'Er Over

I completed stripping the hull, and of course, ran out of strips. I cogitated for a while about whether to get more light-colored wood to match the hull, or get some darker stuff. I went for the darker stuff, because the lighter stuff doesn't contrast much with the basswood.
On the last build, I tried to fair the hull before stripping the deck. I ended up removing too many staples, and some of the forms wanted to fall out when I flipped the boat, causing problems. This time, I rough-shaped the stem & stern, and left most of the staples in. 
The spine, forms, and hull weigh what seems like 100 pounds. I hung all from the rafters, using my roof tie-downs for ropes, screwed hull-shaped wooden blocks to the I-beam, and flipped 'er over.
Now I finally have to decide on a deck design.

Stripping The Hull

The most fun part of the build:watching the strips take on the curve of the forms, and a "boat-like" appearance.
I noticed that this kayak has a harder chine where the bottom meets the sides, so I used two 3/8" strips at that point. The usual mess of glue drips, steps between strips, and Occasional Brute Force. I did some heat bending at the stern, but it was easier than the Expedition Sport's. 

End pieces, using the usual barrage of clamps, tape, staples, heat bending, etc.
I think that the last time I used an internal strongback,  I inadvertently ground the strips down too far, through the masking tape, exposing the form to glue drips. This time, I tried another skinny strip of tape to try to keep the glue out. 

Starting to Strip

Milling the strips went routinely, except that I'd almost forgotten how "physical" and dusty the job is. Again, I ended up with strips 3/16" thick, and decided on a 5/8" width this time. I hope that the smaller strips will be easier to twist into place.

I built the "cross trees" and "outriggers" the same way as the last time, except that I bolted the short boards into the platform, and left the long boards loose. 
The first little cheater strips are in place. I finally figured  out to make the second ones shorter than the first, reducing the number of cheaters needed.

Strongback

After doing it both ways, and realizing the ups and downs of each, I have to conclude that its generally easier to get things aligned when using an Internal Strongback-especially the bow & stern sections.

I had to do a little pulling & tweaking on the spine in order to get the centerline on the forms to line up to the string, but it seems to have come out well. I adjusted the bow & stern sections using shims, and held them in place with glue blocks.

Starting In Earnest

It seems strange, how much I "forgot" about building between last year and this year. I tried building an I-beam twice, using dimension lumber, before giving up on finding boards with no twist or warp. I finally went for this "composite" stuff:

It weighs tons, but it appears to be dimensionally stable. I'm doing an internal strongback again, this time, and after doing it both ways, I think that this technique better insures "straightness". 

The "spine". The Strongback Jinx  was in-I made the first one 1/2" too small! This is poplar ply. I found that the forms fit a little too tightly, so I actually ran the whole beam through the surface planer. It was a a little bit too much to handle, so I widened the holes in the forms instead.

Skeg Plans

I decided to build a skeg & housing from scratch. This gives me something to work on & get psyched for the build. I want to complete as much of this as possible before glassing the hull interior, so I won't get hung up in a lengthy process while the hull wants to shrink & distort.

50-page building manual, and lots of small plywood parts, all of which have to be epoxied, and many fiberglassed. I had to order some rather expensive stainless steel parts. 

Nicks plans call for building a closed box, making a hole in the hull, putting the box through the hull, then trimming to the hull. I'm going to shape the box to the hull interior, and make a slot for just the skeg.

I could not get a feel for what has to be done just by reading the manual. I had to get my hands on the work, following the instructions, before I "got it".
After cutting the bottom of of the box, I tested the skeg blade for fit. I broke the hinge. I glued it back together, then broke it again. I decided to duplicate the blade in Lexan:

It was pretty easy to trace from the wood, and I don't have to worry about waterproofing. After some adjustments, it fits fine.