I neglect my own boats while I build them for other people. Here I finally catch up on some maintenance. I fix a dinged up hull, replace a gasket and fix a back band.
Nick, great series on the Micro Bootlegger. It was great to meet you in person and enjoyed our evening chats at Wooden Boat School. Will look forward to more learning opportunities with your videos!
Good video. Perhaps we don't do this enough. I get the impression that people think composite wood boats are weak and damage easily so they don't want to really use them. Perhaps if they knew how easy it is to patch they wouldn't be so timid.
"The cobbler's kids have no shoes" HAHA Great video Nick! Its good to see how simple a process it really is. And yeah, t'was quite toasty up round Bangor this Aug too. I was building a house then. One of these days it'll be a boat. sigh
I'm not sure I have a delicate touch, what I'm sure I don't have is patience. 40 grit will dig into the class quite quickly, but if you see when you are about to dig into the wood, and stop, it is pretty darned effective.
That is so interesting that YOU, o master kayak builder, do not have patience. I don't believe it. Maybe you mean given your week timeframe for the trip. This video, I was like, when he's repairing his own boats, his level of craft devolves to match the best I can muster for the whole build. Strange. But I understand. No patience is part of the reason, plus less complicated and expensive, I have primarily gone to SOF to scratch the itch. But one of these days I'll have time and space and patience to build a wooden one again. Probably shortly following the eventual demise of the Seabird black pearl, or sufficient uglification of same, it will happen by necessity. And another temporary build shed will be erected... in SOF.
Given a choice between working on building/fixing kayaks, and using/paddling kayaks, I would go paddling every time. Building is what I do to earn the ability to go paddling.
Honestly, I'm not sure what the glass is. I just dipped in to my box of scraps. I believe it is S-Glass, but I didn't pay too much attention. I've got a couple more videos in the process of editing. We'll see when I have a chance to wrap them up.
This is why there are two kinds of Kayakers: plastic and those who regret they ever chose otherwise. I was very enthusiastic to have a friend build me a wooden Kayak but here in the rocky New England terrain despite being careful with it sadly the finish got scratched up and ruined pretty quickly. The fix was more time and effort I wanted to put into it, or more expensive than I wanted to pay to have done so I just gave it back to my friend who took it back for free after I used it very briefly. There's a reason plastic is so popular and at the end of the day, the only real advantage of wood is looks which if not kept in a museum like state won't last without extensive maintenance. The weight difference you cannot even tell and at the end of the day is not enough that you can't just eat a little less and excercise more to lose which is free. After enjoying plastic for years I was happy to go back, my heart goes out to those who stick with wood, there's a reason most Kayaks are built with plastic. The only maintenance my plastic Kayaks ever received besides being dragged and dropped on rocks is plenty of UV light from being left outside and rain. I've never cleaned them not even once, they survived a decade and a half of total neglect with only very mild scratches and warping. At this point I'll keep neglecting them because I got my money's worth. Plastic is the Toyota of Kayaks, maintenance free, nearly indestructible, instead of watching videos like this to see what you're in for with wood, if you've never tried you don't know what you're missing!
There are certain situations where plastic is indeed the way to go, but wood has one characteristic that greatly effects performance and enjoyment out on the water. A wood kayak is typically 15 to 20 pounds lighter than plastic. This is a noticeable benefit, allowing quicker turning, faster acceleration and generally better all around responsiveness. 20% to 30% less weight provides an instant performance boost. It is kind of like driving a Porsche vs a mini van. Yeah, the minivan probably survives bumps better, but its not as fun to drive. I've been using wooden kayaks for over 30 years. I've spent a lot of time in rock gardens and tide races. Again, plastic absolutely has its place, but I am certainly not suffering for lack of hefting excess weight around just to save a bit of time in maintenance.
I had no experience with wood and about 13+ with plastic followed by thermoform. Indeed I was expecting a performance boost going wood and compared to PVC there was, but compared to the lighter thermoform maybe my wood kayak was more responsive but in terms of weight and speed the difference was minimal and maybe I wasn't prepared for what it entailed. Thermoform doesn't have to cost a lot, you can find a lot of good quality thermoform mid level type Kayaks in the $2-500 range on the used market that used to cost 1k or more. Most are in relatively good condition and the performance difference vs wood is so narrow, and the costs of ownership and maintenance so great that you have to have more than just performance in mind. I think you have enjoy working with wood and if you don't, have a lot of disposable income to be ready to perform a lot of expensive repairs on a frequent basis. Living on the Southern New England coast, specifically Rhode Island is a big problem for wood. I just can't believe how quickly I ruined the finish and put gouges on my boat, even on beaches I thought were sandy and "safer". Maybe it would be different elsewhere but areas that are safe for wooden Kayaks around here are like unicorns. It's funny because you mention the cars, I used to do high performance driving. If you know how to drive them, as in giving gas as soon as possible going into (not getting out of) a turn to get grip and unwinding the wheel at the same time to keep the grip and rotate (yes less steering rotates more) they all kind of drive the same, it's kind of like driving a motorcycle. Even the cheapest modern cars can be driven smoothly in such a fashion at pretty much felony speed all the time and you're doing it so imperceptibly without flooring the gas or jerking the wheel or stabbing the brakes that your passengers cannot even notice your immoral speeds. At this point the $800 oil changes, $1800 headlight change and $2000 battery replacement associated with performance marques, most of which cannot be done yourself because you have to disassemble large portions of the car or possess proprietary tools, not to mention lower overall reliability and high related costs of ownership, start to lose their luster.
I live in Southern New England and I've been paddling the coast from here to Downeast Maine since the mid 1980's. I work my kayaks very hard. I play in rock gardens and bounced off hundreds of rocks. In that time I have probably spent a total of maybe 30 hours repairing my damage from playing in rocks. I'm sorry that level of maintenance is so hard that you have saddled yourself with heavy, slow beasts for so long, but I understand that it is a personal choice how to spend your time. As I said before, plastic is absolutely the right choice for some people.
@NickSchade Please can you tell me which blue masking tape you are using? I would like to try this method to effect a similar repair but the tape I have doesn't seem to like epoxy solvents... Thank you. Jonathan
Great educational video, but please PLEASE stop the slow motion parts. It makes an otherwise perfect video look like it has been edited by some teenager.
Not sure why, but your slow-mo shots always give me just a bit of that ASMR sensation, its like a little cherry to top off another great video.
Hi Nick, great idea to do a maintenance video. Very much appreciated 🙂
Thank you I bought a used wooden boat last year that needs a lot of love. Tons of great info.
Nick, great series on the Micro Bootlegger. It was great to meet you in person and enjoyed our evening chats at Wooden Boat School. Will look forward to more learning opportunities with your videos!
Thanks for the ice cream sandwiches.
Good day Nick. Thanks for the video, a lot of useful trivia. :-)
Good video. Perhaps we don't do this enough. I get the impression that people think composite wood boats are weak and damage easily so they don't want to really use them. Perhaps if they knew how easy it is to patch they wouldn't be so timid.
Thanks
🍻👨🏻🏭🇨🇦
"The cobbler's kids have no shoes" HAHA
Great video Nick! Its good to see how simple a process it really is. And yeah, t'was quite toasty up round Bangor this Aug too. I was building a house then. One of these days it'll be a boat. sigh
I guess Im kinda randomly asking but do anybody know of a good site to stream newly released movies online ?
I'm amazed you attack your boat with 40 grit! You must have a very delicate touch: I'd be through into the back compartment.
I'm not sure I have a delicate touch, what I'm sure I don't have is patience. 40 grit will dig into the class quite quickly, but if you see when you are about to dig into the wood, and stop, it is pretty darned effective.
That is so interesting that YOU, o master kayak builder, do not have patience. I don't believe it. Maybe you mean given your week timeframe for the trip. This video, I was like, when he's repairing his own boats, his level of craft devolves to match the best I can muster for the whole build. Strange. But I understand. No patience is part of the reason, plus less complicated and expensive, I have primarily gone to SOF to scratch the itch. But one of these days I'll have time and space and patience to build a wooden one again. Probably shortly following the eventual demise of the Seabird black pearl, or sufficient uglification of same, it will happen by necessity. And another temporary build shed will be erected... in SOF.
And, I'll know much more about the process because of the videos you've put out. Thanks.
Given a choice between working on building/fixing kayaks, and using/paddling kayaks, I would go paddling every time. Building is what I do to earn the ability to go paddling.
S-glass ? I was Jonesin for another one of your videos ! Thanks !
Honestly, I'm not sure what the glass is. I just dipped in to my box of scraps. I believe it is S-Glass, but I didn't pay too much attention.
I've got a couple more videos in the process of editing. We'll see when I have a chance to wrap them up.
Yeah, sometimes it's hard to tell ! Again looking forward to more ! Thanks !
This is why there are two kinds of Kayakers: plastic and those who regret they ever chose otherwise. I was very enthusiastic to have a friend build me a wooden Kayak but here in the rocky New England terrain despite being careful with it sadly the finish got scratched up and ruined pretty quickly. The fix was more time and effort I wanted to put into it, or more expensive than I wanted to pay to have done so I just gave it back to my friend who took it back for free after I used it very briefly.
There's a reason plastic is so popular and at the end of the day, the only real advantage of wood is looks which if not kept in a museum like state won't last without extensive maintenance. The weight difference you cannot even tell and at the end of the day is not enough that you can't just eat a little less and excercise more to lose which is free. After enjoying plastic for years I was happy to go back, my heart goes out to those who stick with wood, there's a reason most Kayaks are built with plastic.
The only maintenance my plastic Kayaks ever received besides being dragged and dropped on rocks is plenty of UV light from being left outside and rain. I've never cleaned them not even once, they survived a decade and a half of total neglect with only very mild scratches and warping. At this point I'll keep neglecting them because I got my money's worth. Plastic is the Toyota of Kayaks, maintenance free, nearly indestructible, instead of watching videos like this to see what you're in for with wood, if you've never tried you don't know what you're missing!
There are certain situations where plastic is indeed the way to go, but wood has one characteristic that greatly effects performance and enjoyment out on the water.
A wood kayak is typically 15 to 20 pounds lighter than plastic. This is a noticeable benefit, allowing quicker turning, faster acceleration and generally better all around responsiveness.
20% to 30% less weight provides an instant performance boost. It is kind of like driving a Porsche vs a mini van. Yeah, the minivan probably survives bumps better, but its not as fun to drive.
I've been using wooden kayaks for over 30 years. I've spent a lot of time in rock gardens and tide races. Again, plastic absolutely has its place, but I am certainly not suffering for lack of hefting excess weight around just to save a bit of time in maintenance.
I had no experience with wood and about 13+ with plastic followed by thermoform. Indeed I was expecting a performance boost going wood and compared to PVC there was, but compared to the lighter thermoform maybe my wood kayak was more responsive but in terms of weight and speed the difference was minimal and maybe I wasn't prepared for what it entailed. Thermoform doesn't have to cost a lot, you can find a lot of good quality thermoform mid level type Kayaks in the $2-500 range on the used market that used to cost 1k or more. Most are in relatively good condition and the performance difference vs wood is so narrow, and the costs of ownership and maintenance so great that you have to have more than just performance in mind. I think you have enjoy working with wood and if you don't, have a lot of disposable income to be ready to perform a lot of expensive repairs on a frequent basis.
Living on the Southern New England coast, specifically Rhode Island is a big problem for wood. I just can't believe how quickly I ruined the finish and put gouges on my boat, even on beaches I thought were sandy and "safer". Maybe it would be different elsewhere but areas that are safe for wooden Kayaks around here are like unicorns.
It's funny because you mention the cars, I used to do high performance driving. If you know how to drive them, as in giving gas as soon as possible going into (not getting out of) a turn to get grip and unwinding the wheel at the same time to keep the grip and rotate (yes less steering rotates more) they all kind of drive the same, it's kind of like driving a motorcycle. Even the cheapest modern cars can be driven smoothly in such a fashion at pretty much felony speed all the time and you're doing it so imperceptibly without flooring the gas or jerking the wheel or stabbing the brakes that your passengers cannot even notice your immoral speeds. At this point the $800 oil changes, $1800 headlight change and $2000 battery replacement associated with performance marques, most of which cannot be done yourself because you have to disassemble large portions of the car or possess proprietary tools, not to mention lower overall reliability and high related costs of ownership, start to lose their luster.
I live in Southern New England and I've been paddling the coast from here to Downeast Maine since the mid 1980's. I work my kayaks very hard. I play in rock gardens and bounced off hundreds of rocks. In that time I have probably spent a total of maybe 30 hours repairing my damage from playing in rocks.
I'm sorry that level of maintenance is so hard that you have saddled yourself with heavy, slow beasts for so long, but I understand that it is a personal choice how to spend your time. As I said before, plastic is absolutely the right choice for some people.
@NickSchade Please can you tell me which blue masking tape you are using? I would like to try this method to effect a similar repair but the tape I have doesn't seem to like epoxy solvents... Thank you. Jonathan
if i plan on painting the boat after applying the glass do I still require UV varnish or will the paint be enough sun protection?
Great educational video, but please PLEASE stop the slow motion parts. It makes an otherwise perfect video look like it has been edited by some teenager.