Carbon Fiber Layup On Coaming

The cockpit rims on these boats are being finished with a carbon fiber layup. The fabric is 5.5oz twill weave from U.S. Composites. I cut an oversized piece and laid it over the coaming and cockpit opening, gently smoothing the wrinkles and puckers by hand.

After I was satisfied with the way the fabric was laying I poured a generous amount of unthickened epoxy around the rim. I worked the epoxy into the carbon fiber using a plastic squeegee and a disposable chip brush. The squeegee was used to hold the fabric from sliding while I pushed and dabbed with the brush to work the epoxy into the fabric.

Once the fabric was thoroughly saturated I laid pieces of fiberglass cloth over top of the carbon fiber and wet out the fiberglass with more epoxy. I read so many posts on the forum warning that carbon fiber should be covered in fiberglass to help contain sharp splinters and shards in case it shattered, that I became convinced it was just a ticking timebomb ready to explode at any moment and shower any unsuspecting bystanders with "Carbon Fiber Shrapnel".

Glassing the Deck

Sample rice paper graphic on scrap plywood

With the decks installed, preparations are made for fiberglassing the deck. "Preparations" almost always means sanding. In this case, there is much sanding, as well as the opportunity to personalize the boats. Pictured to the right is the logo created for the builds. This image is printed on rice paper with a laser printer and epoxied onto the wood under the fiberglass. The epoxy wets out the rice paper and it becomes mostly clear, and the fiberglass coat protects it from damage.  The logo will be applied to the rear of the deck, and I will also apply a compass rose graphic to the front of the deck, again using the printed rice paper method.

carbon fiber accent disguises forward deck scarf joint

In addition to the graphics these boats will have a carbon fiber accent piece on the nose. My preferred finish for the kayaks is a painted hull and a varnished deck. I don't want to say this too loudly, but I am not a fan of the all varnished finish. I like the way the polyurethane painted hulls resemble gelcoat, I also like that the painted hulls cover the scarf joints on the hull panels. My idea to disguise the scarf joint on the forward section of the deck is to epoxy down a triangular piece of carbon twill cloth. I laid a piece of fiberglass tape crosswise on the transition from cloth to bare wood to help feather it in without sanding into the carbon fiber.

Carbon fiber feathered into bare wood. A painted stripe will cover the transition.

Prepping For The Deck Installation

Sheer clamps are planed to match the deck angles

Prior to attaching the decks a few items need to be completed while I still had full access to the inside of the hull. Many builders do the epoxy endpours after the deck is on, the manual's recommended approach is to dam up the ends and fill with epoxy.

Carbon Fiber tape epoxied to inside of hull for foot brace mounting

Kayak ends are filled with epoxy for strength

Installing Deck Beams

Jig for laminating deck beams

Both the Chesapeake 16lt and the Chesapeake 17lt require a pair of curved deck beams. A large one just forward of the cockpit opening, and a smaller one set near the bow. The larger of the two beams was made by laminating layers of 4mm plywood together on a jig. The smaller forward beam was cut directly from a piece of 1x4 pine.  With more forethought I would have made the laminated deck beam pieces longer and cut both beams from a single curved piece.

The directions call for attaching the deck beam with thickened epoxy and a single screw through each sheer into the beam. Like many builders on the CLC Forum, I opted to only use

Laminated deck beam is cleaned up and the sharp corners eased

the thickened epoxy and reinforce the deck beam with epoxy fillets. My thinking is that once the deck is securely attached to the deck beam and the sheer clamps the deck beams will be locked into position.

Deck beam clamped in position

Glassing The Hull

 I own a sign company, and a conservative guess would be that I have applied more than one hundred thousand square feet of PSA vinyl with a plastic squeegee over the past fifteen years. It turns out that when it comes to applying epoxy to fiberglass cloth, a plastic squeegee is not my friend. Rob Macks of Laughing Loon  recommends using a foam roller to wet out the fiberglass, he gives very detailed instructions in the shop tips section of his website.

Once I switched from the squeegee to the roller method wetting out the fiberglass cloth on the two hulls went very smoothly. The roller gave me more control over how much epoxy I was laying down. Putting the epoxy in a roller tray kept it cooler longer and gave me ample working time to get the batches on the boats.

My two favorite materials are diamondplate and carbon fiber, unfortunately I can't figure a way to incorporate diamondplate into a wooden kayak