Preparing for this year's kayak build activities includes producing quite a number of perfect cockpit coamings in litterally all shapes and sizes.
Since many builders find it hard to steam bend really thick pieces of hardwood, that's where many builders make compromises. If a cockpit shall have long-term lasting quality you should not compromize the thickness and quality of the wood used. I use 12 mm. thick hardwood - ash or oak with perfect grain. I steam it for an hour, and after that, with some struggle, I can bend it around a pretty sharp shaped plywood template. It is immediately glued on the overlapping surfaces with PU glue. Then it rests till the day after where I take it off the template and bend another piece of hardwood around the top surface of the coaming to give a good grip to the sprayskirt.
The coamings are used in this year's build classes, as well as sold to home builders in my webshop.
I seldom make circular coamings, unless on demand. This particular one was made for a replica of the Igdlorssuit kayak that the Valley Anas Acuta was molded after. The rest of the kayak is to be built in the class that will be held In the US in October this year.
After being under the weather for more than a week with a really bad cold, I dressed up and took this new kayak for a little spin on the lake. The kayak is a very ordinary Greenland style kayak. It is newly built. It measures 520 cm. by 54 cm. And weighs just below 12 kilo. It has enough volume to easily carry me and 30 kilo of gear. Or carry a heavier person with less gear.
The idea behind this was to sort of re-create some of the very first kayaks I ever built, and paddled.
You can compare it to the old picture below. The picture shows me, kayak touring in 1996. I built the kayak in the photo as one of my very first in the winter of 1995 - 30 years ago exactly.
This is the (so far) finished product of a long process. I have tried to duplicate a good design with the intent of making a kayak build kit or an online class some day. The idea is to give people who are not able to attend one of my build classes the opportunity to build a fine kayak in their home anyway. The conclusion so far is that the kayak performs very well, and the quality is good. The design is both functional and beautiful, and suitabe for all-round use for a medium-large person. and as a good touring kayak for a small-medium person. The new build method has proved good so far. But I will still need some additional testing to refine the technique.
One Friday afternoon was spent adding little flags to most of the goods in the norwegian wood paddles web shop. I don't want to get too political, but I feel that information about where things come from is pretty basic and important knowledge. For me, it was very satisfying to notice how the products that represent more than 80% of my webshop sales could be labelled "Made in Norway". A huge thanks to my suppliers and all the beautiful people of the world :)
February just ended, making it officially spring. We haven't done much kayaking lately, but the temperatures are rising and the light is very rapidly returning to the Northernmost corners of the world. The last days were spent crosscountry skiing in the nearby mountains with some good old friends. Our scheduled classes are slowly filling up and so are inquries about paddles and kayaks. Spring is here, and I feel confident that we'll have lots of great work, projects and cooporarion with great people again.
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