Hans first F1 Kayak build, Sollentuna north Stockholm

Preparations; October 2020

I started to planing for this activity this spring and made some investigations and ads on social media to get some place to start my project. I hade possibility to rent an uninsulated garage/smal barn at the country side. The positive is that it is just beside the runway of an airport so I don’t disturb anyone except the the mice.

My personal experience is that there is problems to get ceder here in Stockholm. There are some companies in south/south west who can supply ceder, but the cost to transport it to Stockholm is more that the cost of material to build on F1 (perhaps some other builder here in Sweden have tips of supplier:-)). I decided to go for pinewood as this is what this country is build of. I found a supplier two hours drive from Stockholm who have more or less knot-free pine. I got four planks 2″x6″ with almost the length I needed (have to do a scarf joint of the gunwale and keel) for a resonable cost.

I started to cut the pieces on my table saw to the thickness with some margins, then I started up my planer to fine tuning the bits and pieces to right dimensions (it is some confusing to translate from Imperial to metric).

All pieces done. It generates a pile of shavings.

26 October 2020

Today I have got the delivery of a F1 kit from Brian:-). Have been in contact with Corey at Skin Boat Store to order fabric and urethan.

27 October 2020

Starting to make all the forms and small jig blocks. Hade time to make the base for steam box and the base for the form to make curved deck beams.

29 October 2020

Have to take a brake från kayak building to have a day with one of my grandchildren Sigrid. We went to a playground with lots of toys to play with.

The first photo is a “new weather computer”. Maybe something to have in the sailboat or kayak:-).

30 October 2020

Another day off. Today was a foggy day in Stockholm.

We took a tour to the south part of Stockholm City. This is a view from Fjällgatan.

Long time no update:-)

9 November 2020

Preparations continue. Have to translate the rib and deck beam layout to metric as I have not long enough measuring tape covering 144 inch.

With help of this table and the jigs I started to cut the gunwales.

Have to try how it should look like, so I hade to do a first try when setting the the gunwales in the forms.

11 November 2020

I forgotten an apple last time I was in my workshop and the mice had a party:-)

Anyhow I started to create tenon on the deck beams and it was a meditative work. I got i in place and pegged all in one day.

16 November 2020

I have to speed up the work as we still have some warm weather (8 to 13 degrees) this week and the forecast is that there is going to be much colder end of the week.

I started to prepare the ribs. After I have looked and listen to Brians instructive video to understanding the rib measuring system for F1 I could make me a stick based om the size of my boat in imperial. And in the late afternoon I have all the ribs measured and cut in the length it should be.

I hade some problems to get them in place in the gunwales as my router bit is a 6 mm size and the ribs I got from Brian was little to wide and little to thick. I hade to do some modifications at the end of each ribs to get the in place.

I went home to get a good night sleep as my intention was to start up my steaming box early next morning.

17 November 2020

This is the point of no return. I started up my steaming box at 8.30 in the morning about half an hour later the expected.

I had forgotten the we should have a visit of to men cleaning and checking our ventilation in the morning!

But never the les, when the I had full heat and steam in the box I took an extra rib I got in the package from Brian to do tests of the steaming time.

When making the tests an figured out that with the green oak I had it should be around 7 to 8 minutes.

With this in minde I started to load the box with the first eight ribs, one per minute. When the eight rib was in the box I could start bendin the first one. It went out well with the first three and I hope that they went out to be in the recommended V-shape.

First and third hade some split at the top, but I expected that after Brians instructions. It was not more than glue could fix.

I went on with the rest of the ribs. After some ribs I figure out that my gloves was nor heat resistant. I hade to work fast with each rib as they got very warm.

Almost there! I hade two broken ribs. One when I bent it and one who split when I put it in the mortis. But it was just to go to the woking bench and make two new ribs.

I made to put on both the keel and the stingers same day, with Brians words ringing in my ears (or it might be my Tinnitus) when bending the ribs in place, to keep the right shape of the ribs, the keel and the stinger should be in place with in the same day.

Hope I got the form right on the ribs;-)

18 November 2020

When looking at the project so far I think it hade gone smooth. Today I lashes the stingers and glued the secondary stingers and end blocks to the bow and stern. I finish the day off with lashing on the foredeck stringer and mounted the foot braces. now it starts to look like a kayak:-)

Now is most of the wood work done. I have to shape and peg the aft deck stringers, drilling for the deck lines some more.

19 November 2020

Today I have finished the hull. I started to mount the aft deck stringers and after that drilling for the deck lines. I made a clean up after the pegs and rounded all the sharp edges I could find.

The oil is on!!!! ✌️

I’m glad that I could finish the hull as the temperature dropped from 9 degrees to 1 degrees in a few hours and starting to snow.

So far no bigger problem thanks to a good instructions both in the plans and also to listen to Brians video. The errors is only my own fault.

Now I’m waiting for delivery from Skinboats.com. I got a mail late yesterday evening that the fabric and polyurethane is in the transport👍.

I will come back with updates when I can start up the work again.

March 2021

Now the springtime have arrived and the temp is OK, I could start up again in my workshop. I found a supplier of ceder this winter when I was looking for good oak to build a combined bench/radiator cover for my son.

I bought me some 4″ x 2″ in right length and started all over and it ended up with one new for me and one for my wife.

I found a local supplier of bending oak north Stockholm. There was some problems bend this oak although it looks OK. I hade to make me about fifteen new ribs on two the two boats. So still in my perspective the oak from Brian is still outstanding.

There is a tremendous difference in weight between pine and ceder (I will come back withe the actual wight soon) so I will have the pine frame as a spare.

8 April 2021

Now the frame work is done and oiled.

12 April 2021

It was an exiting moment when I started to wrap the cloth around the shorter one for my wife and starting to stitch the stern and bow. It worked well to stretch the cloth at the stern and pinch it down. It looks more lika a ghost ship to start with and ending up looking like a kayak. Now I have just the stitching of the deck seams to be done.

I hope all of you take care out there and stay well!

14 April 2021

At last I have put the skin on the frame for the firs time and I have got the coaming on it also. Now I have to put the skin on the other one:-).

15 April 2021

Today the goal is to finish the other kayak so I can put some nice dye color on them. I full fill my goal and I got on in “Sweet potato” and the other one in “Aztec gold”.

I’m feeling satisfied with the result. I loved the way the nylon shrieked when iron it. Now the plan is to put the coating on!

After a weekend and a start of a week with god weather we have to start to clean and polish our big boat. So it was “wax on, wax off” and in between I got my first vaccin against Covid-19.

21 April 2021

Today I started to put on the coating. After listen to Brians instructions several times howe to mix the part A and part B in right proportions (not to much part B and not to little of part A:-)) I started to mix up the stuff. I think it looks quite nice after all the mixing and stirring. Hopefully it will look nice in the daylight as well.

At the end everything was covered.

22 April 2021

No workshop today as it is +1 degrees, hard wind and snowing:-(

7 June 2021

After a long time and som struggling with coating I have one ready to go. The maiden tour will be in about two weeks time as we are in the middle of planing a sailing week with three of our grand children together with five more boats.

I have started to make me a Greenland paddle and it is almost done:-)

30 June 2021

Now I have hade possibility to make my maiden tour. There was no time to take a picture on the lake as it was quite windy evening.

There was a little bit wobbling until I got use to the boat and it behaves very well in the wind gosts (about 6 – 8 m/s)

11 August 2021

Here is a picture on the lake (No wind at all:-))

To be contiued