Boat repair - Struer K4

Now that temperatures are warm enough for me to use my 'outside workshop', I've got a whole slew of club repairs to do for the Rice Creek Boat Club.  Some of them are minor - like fixing chips in the bow and stern finish so the boat runs smooth and doesn't pick up weeds, and some are like the K4 that I rehabbed two summers ago. The finished project will go on the water in 2 weeks, but in the meantime it's hanging out at Finn Sisu ski shop down on Lauderdale - and thanks to Ahvo and company for storing/displaying it for us!

Every club needs a K4.  It's the ultimate team boat for kayaking, and this was a beaut.  Well, kinda.  We got it from a friend in Texas, who got it from a club in Ontario in 'as is' condition - still needing a whole lot of TLC.  He realized that he didn't have the time to work on it, and his kids weren't that interested, so we swapped a K1 for his K4.  Winner all around.   This was no boat show queen, and in fact - it was in pretty bad shape.  Wenonah Canoe was kind enough to bring the boat (and a box of pieces) back up after one of their long haul deliveries, and I started taking inventory.  Over the years, I've done a bit of boat repair, building, rebuilding, glass work, epoxy work, etc.  But I've never worked with veneers of mahogany that were this thin.  Fortunately, I had a couple of patient folks to consult.  Express Composites was a gold mine of info and ideas.  They really helped a lot with figuring out how to solve some of the materials issues.


The first problem is the sheer size.  A K4 is THIRTY FIVE feet long, and only 20" wide.  The whole boat only weighs about 70lb!!!  This boat was built by Struer Brothers in Denmark, in about 1995 - probably concurrent with the Atlanta Olympics.  The original Danish finish was a catalyzed lacquer, and as you can see below, mostly had been 'degraded' by years of use.
This particular boat had been ripped nearly in half at seat one, and someone (maybe Tamas Buday Jr) up in Canada had done a pretty darn good job Sr) rebuilding the hull to make it usable (and straight).  I had mostly 'cosmetic' work to do, if you can call rebuilding the hot molded veneer cockpit combings cosmetic.  More like an archaeological puzzle.  Instead of attempting to be authentic and repair it the same way the brothers had made it, I opted for 'functional', cleaning up the edges, carving, sanding and piecing together the remaining bits, along with lots of thickened epoxy, some carved solid bits of mahogany a bit of glass, carbon filament, and a lot of sandpaper.  And I'm pretty happy with the results.  It's pretty ugly from closer than 10 feet, but on the water, it just looks like the patina of age.

 More glass, more sanding, more shaping, more expoxy, and time.  Cabosil and epoxy make a nice filler, especially when you mix in a few glass fibers to give it some strength.

 And some interesting clamping challenges too.

 The other side of the cockpit was a lot cleaner - mostly a few broken bits but at least they were all there.

 Almost every cockpit had a broken nose that required some kind of work.  The original work had steam bent mahogany wrapped around the cockpit.  I wound up carefully carving and fitting pieces and then wrapping with 4oz glass.

 The cockpit floor got an extra layer of veneer and glass, just to make sure it was strong enough.

 Seat assembly ready for locating and rebuilding the mounting.

 Seat 4

 I wish I'd had someone take pictures of the sanding process. Nick McGrory, Sarah Tokos, and Isaac Ridge, junior athletes of the Rice Creek Boat Club, spent a bunch of hours sanding to get it ready to coat. I spent more than a few more, but I was fairly picky about some of the finish details, and I really wanted to get it right where I could.

 At any rate, after a hundred or so hours of repair and sanding, several coats of catalyzed lacquer, followed by several more hours of sanding/buffing, here it is.

 Almost like a vanishing point sketch.

 Low luster Sherwin Williams catalyzed lacquer, sprayed on a calm morning. I probably could've/should've added a couple of extra coats, but it's good, I think.

Not exactly legal, but hey - it's up there.