Luca’s F1 Kayak – southeastern Bavaria

Hi, I’m Luca!

I live in southeast Bavaria, Germany. I’ve been interested in kayaking, sailing and woodworking as long as I remember. To combine woodwork and kayaking, I decided to build an F1.

#1 WOOD FOR THE RIBS

I started cutting the ribs and coaming wood of an ash trunk with Franz (He also build a F1 Kayak)

#3 GUNWALES

After I made the holes for the deck beams and ribs I laid out the Gunwales to check for symmetry.

#4 COAMING

I started making the coaming today. For the thick lower part I used ½” of ash wood. The wood was very dry, and I was worried that it’s going to brake, so I put it in water for 3 days. After that I had no difficulty bending it.

For the lip I thought about using hazelnut wood. I cut a big fresh stem with my bandsaw (I was surprised how well it goes through) and prepared everything for bending. I wanted to bend the strip but…. it broke. On the second attempt it broke again. However, on the next day I used two strips of Ash instead. Everything went well. I Used brass screws and some glue to attach the lip to the coaming.

#5 LAMINATING THE DECK BEAMS

Laminated the deck beams and made the tenons.

#6 BENDING THE RIBS

Today I bent the ribs, broke a few but all in all it went ok. I was struggling with the first and second rib. Rounding the edges helped a lot.

The same Day I leashed the keel to the ribs.

#7 ASSEMBLING THE FRAME

Today I leashed the main stringers and secondary stingers. After some sanding and a coat of Oil the Frame is FINISHED!

#8 LAYING OUT THE NYLON FABRIC

For the skin I used ballistic nylon from extremtextil.de. Cutting and sewing the fabric was not a hard thing to do, the instructions were clear. I made some templates to experiment how the fabric is handling heat and water. For the collar I used acid dye, I hadn’t had enough white vinegar, so I used citric acid instead (60g citric acid powder). Quite a mess but worked. After dyeing the nylon, it shrunk significantly and the tension was like a high pidged drum. I sewed and dyed at 15°C (59°F)

#9 PU COAT

I used the 2k Lechner varnish as a coating. I would recommend 300g (200g PU/100g hardener) of varnish per side for the first coat, 250g as the second and 150g as the third layer. I used a brush to make the air bubbles disappear. After a drying time of 24h at 22° C I flipped the boat and painted the deck. I used about 150g per side (2 layers).

All in all, I used roughly 1900ml PU and 950ml hardener. After 72h the PU lacquer was cured.

#10 FIRST DRIVE

So today was the maiden voyage at -2°C (35,6 °F) Air and 5°C (41°F) Water temperature. Getting in wasn’t easy but once you sat the boat was stable. No leaks 😮

In Summary,

building the kayak was a lot of fun and sometimes quite a challenge for me. Often because of the unfamiliar measurement system. But still everything was explained very well and with time it wasn’t that difficult to measure. However, I’m very happy how it turned out.