20-11-11: Bow Hatch.

Today I glued spacer in place for the bow hatch. 

Its takes a looong time to build a kayak when you only build for 1-2 hours every other weekend. BUT never mind - the kayak is going to be ready for the water in springtime (the water is too cold now anyway).

Ready to mix the epoxy.

Applying epoxy to the spacer.

The spacer held in place with all the clamps I could fit into the hole. 

I thinned the remaining epoxy with a bit of alcohol and sealed the edges of the hatch lid with epoxy.

As with the rear hatch I spray painted the flange black. Next step will be to glue the flange in place as well. 
I gues I could have glued both the spacer and the flange in place at the same time, but I it is easier to hold things in place when glued seperately.

15-11-11: Stern Hatch

I just spent two hours building again... 

I glued the stern hatch flange in place.

Hopefully this batch of epoxy will turn out better than the last one. For the first time ever the epoxy did not turn out right when I glued the spacer in place. I always try to leave a bit of epoxy in the mixing pot in order to have a mean of checking the state of curing. Last batch turned out brittle. I did not think the proportions of resin and hardener was so critical, but I can find no other explanation. I used a kitchen scale, but its not very accurate when measuring small amounts (<10 gr.)

12-11-11: Cutting the holes for hatches

Today I cut the holes for the hatches. Its a scary feeling to start cutting into something you have spent a long time building.
First I made a template for the holes.

 After that i traced the template onto the kayak.

I used my fantastic japanese saw to cut the holes. It takes a bit of patience, but I feel more in control than if I used a jigsaw....

Done ! Two holes cut in the deck....

I used my skilsaw to cut a piece of birch plywood for the hatch flanges.

 Ooops... A good thing i had ajusted he saw not to cut too deep..... I only cut a minor goove in my    sawhorse. :-(

The hatch cover will be laying on a flange and a gasket. To lower the flange and make space for the gasket I put a spacer between the flange and the deck.

The spacer is now glued in place with epoxy.

The flange is now almost ready to be glued to the spacer. I gave the spacer a quick paint of black.

Tomorrow (hopefully) I will glues the flange in place.
To hold the hatches I will use under deck bungee cord...