The Trolling Machine

Well. On Christmas Eve I just had to start a new build and it took until today to try it out. Kind of a new record. You may call me Mr Slowly too.

The first mandatory shot taken
Some sloppy setup for the plunge router
Christmas outside the house
Stem pieces to make a nice rounded bow and stern
Who put the puzzle there

Went and bought another oak plank.

Deck beams and forms
Heavy (oak) shit dude
The Beetles had their party
Ripping it with a headlight on

Stems, steambending, keel and stringers.

Tried ribs with grooves to control the bend. Kinda worked.
Keel done, stringers ongoing

Starting to look like a kayak.

Approximately 7kg
One can not have too many clamps
Meanwhile, outside
Making masiks
Ended up with three masiks
Looks like an abomination but the kayak is really flat and low
A “gull-wing” extra masik
Comparison to my East greenland qajaq
A nice ass
Had only brown oil
Stem plates
Mostly a joke but might stabilize the stem

Sewing the “skin”.

Better cover up dear, it’s cold outside!
One last look
Finished outside. Cold, wet and relaxed.
Just messin ‘ with tarred thin string

Just a quick coaming while sewing…

It’s messy bending double coaming lips
I had some hand-forged looking copper nails
Tadaa!
Now would be the time to consider no color
I love this stage

The coating disaster.

First layer
Second layer
Day two and most of it came off
Day 3-4
Day 5
After giving up I acetoned the shit out of the skin. The qajaq’s and mine
The result
Other side
After consulting with my supplier
It still mostly came off
and settled after 5 days
Yayy…kind of hard to save this aesthetically

More layers and then waitawhile. It took a layer at least 3 days to settle and one week to become non-sticky.

Slowly covering up with a 50-50 mix of old and new PU. I leave it nice and glossy and come back to this every time.
One month later
I invented a whole library of curses
But sometimes you just have to roll with it
The lines seem standard but she is quite low and wide
She didn’t sink

And then finally… a qajaq which took me exactly 3 months to finish. It weighs 11kg, is 51cm wide and 503cm long. Will post more info and vids when I have them.

With this transparency one sees the labour put into the frame. Photo by Karin Å.
Photo by Karin Å.

This would-be rolling beauty actually paddles really well! She’s quite stable, has great secondary stability and has almost no wind-cocking tendencies. If my East Greenland kayak is a 2+ in stability out of 5 (and I use it as my everyday-kayak), this one is a 3+ or more if your weight is less than 80 kg.

However, you will have a hard time fitting anything larger than a small drinking bottle and a pair of gloves in it, let alone myself. For the first paddle I had to take my shoes off to fit inside!

I’m ok with 11,2 kg fully equipped or just over 24 lbs for a playful kayak which rolls, tracks and steers well. To top it off it’s probably the most stable kayak I’ve built! Packing one’s daypack is an issue though 🙂 Another trait is that she’s a little reluctant to do forward finishing rolls, at least the harder ones. Hmmm, maybe I need to caress her and practice more? Most likely…or build another one when the first infatuation is gone? Don’t tell her!

She is 51cm wide and 503cm tall. I will call her Nila. An easy name to remeber and it means blue or dark blue in Sanskrit.

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