What was that?  I can't hear you.  Let me turn down my kayak!

I couldn't take a video with the AUX In working, because I use my phone to take all the pics and videos.

I'm listening to it now and it's pretty wicked.  I will get an Otter Box or something like that to put my phone in so its water proof.

Next project is the base supports for the wing.  I'm taking the rest of the night off so Maybe I'll do it Thursday or Friday night.  We'll see.  Probably Sunday.  This weekends supposed to rain anyway.

If you need me I'll be rocking out to the iYak!

Seriously!  One terminal thingy short in my electrical work to make it all work and get some tunes pumping up in this kayak.  I'm not too impressed.  I'll get one tomorrow after work and have a video up for all to see and hear this.  With the AUX In I could hook up an iPod.  What do think if I call it an iYak?

What a busy night.  So here is what happened.  Shazzam the battery box is in.  Wiring tomorrow night.  I wanted to do that tonight, but that story will follow later in this post.

So this is how I terminated the end of the aircraft wire at the pedal. 

Here's the pedals.  I picked these up at duckworth.com.  I wouldn't try to make these.  These work great and they have locks.  Which was part of my problem tonight.  The port side wire went on fine.  Perfect in fact.  The starboard one I moved aft just like the port side so I could reach in and pass the wire through the hole.  Too bad I forgot to put the starboard one back to where my feet sit like I did with the port side one.  So after going to Kent and realizing they didn't have what I wanted I had to go to Canadian Tire to get some Dremel cutting wheels because the one that came with the Dremel broke and hit me in the face.  I'm glad this is over.

Here's what the wiring looks like.

Tomorrow night is electrical wiring.  It's getting closer for the kayak itself to be done.  As for the sailing rig.  That is the next step.  At least I can get the kayak on the water while the epoxy for the pontoons dry.

Wow.  What a busy day today.  So here is the last of the guides for the aircraft wire installed with the eye bolt for the pulley up by the cockpit.  This means the air craft wire will be installed tomorrow and that project will be done. 

I think I might paint the rudder a bright yellow, but the jury is still out on that one.

Here is the inside of the cargo space.  The master on/off switch is on the top left with the fuze box under it.  On the right is a cigarette lighter.  Mostly for charging my cell phone.  The bolt coming up from the bottowm is going to be the ground.

Here is a battery box.  They kayak is on a 45 degree angle so I'm going to install that tomorrow.

Sorry the next pic is sideways.  I can't flip it.  That is the waterproof radio on the top and the master switch on the bottom.  The bolts on the right side are the postive and negative "terminals".  I just wanted to centralize all the positives and negatives so I didn't have them all connected to the battery.  This way I just have one connection to connect and disconnect from the battery.

I had this hatch in the central bulkead behind my seat so I could get longer items in and out of the main cargo area.  It's not exactly waterproof, but I'm not exactly designing this thing to be an eskimo rolling kayak.  If that does happen I guess I have to get a new battery.  Everything else should be ok.  I hope.

Tomorrow night, is aircraft wire and electrical wiring night.  I plan on pumping the tunes from this thing tomorrow night.  What should be my first song.  I'll probably put in on Live 105 to keep it simple for now.

It should be noted that the radio has an Aux Input.  Satelite radio perhaps?

So tonight I got some toys for future projects on the kayak then came home to work on it.

Here I'm taking her out to sand down aft of the cockpit.

Here I am out on the back deck getting ready to sand.  My neighbour just came out to enjoy his deck too.  Ha Ha!

So I sanded it all up and wiped it off with a damp rag and pushed her back in.

Below she's back in the house.  I've gotten so used to having a boat in the house that when I go to my friend's places I'm like, "Where is your boat?"

 Below is the rudder.  I put the bolts in the ends of the wings and epoxied them as well.  I'll take my angle grinder and shave off the bolt to a manageable length.  I should have done it before, but I didn't.  Lesson learned.

Here is the one hole in the side with a pic of one of the guides.  I could only do these two because of the angle the kayak is on in this picture.  I realized after I tried to put the guide on that I couldn't put clamps on them so I had to angle the kayak to let gravity hold it down.  I may have to put on each guide individually because each angle of the hull is unique.  Hopefully not, but we'll see.

Next up is epoxying on the rest of the guides and getting the aircraft wire on.  I can't wait till this is done.  The roof racks came in, that means the car is ready for the yak.  

Big news tonight.  I've had over two hundred views.  Thanks Mom and to everyone else out there reading this.

It's raining tonight so I couldn't take the kayak out the back door and sand it.  So I hit the shed and made the guides and the holes for where the wire will pass through the hull.

If tomorrow's weather will co-operate I'll get some sanding in and hopefully a bit of epoxy on them too.  I'm going bowling so we'll see what happens.

I also put the rudder together.  I was so close to getting the cotter pin in with the washer, but the axle pin is like a millimetre too short.  I'm snappin', but I'll figure it out.  Might have to get a new axle pin.  We'll see.

So I had some family over this weekend so I didn't get a lot done on the kayak.  It did make for a good conversation peice, but it made eating arrangements a little more interesting.  The breakfast BBQ was a huge success.

But I digress.  I sanded the rudder with a 120 grit to get that bubble line off edge that I mentioned before.  I also put another thin coat of epoxy on it.  It's a lot smoother now and should cut through the water like a razor.

I epoxied up the rudder mechanism and put fibre glass on the wings.  I probably should have put the bolts in that will hold the steering cables, but I didn't.  I do realize that I'll have to mix some more epoxy to seal up those holes, but since I don't have the bolts yet, I just wanted to get this done.

The fibre glasss that is hanging off I'll just cut that with a box cutter and take the sander to it, just like the rudder.  From looking at other kayaks this rudder mechanism is pretty hardcore.  I'll start the cable assembly tomorrow night and get some pics up for that.  I'll finish sanding the rudder too.

I can't wait to hit the water, but I'll have to wait till my new roof racks get here.

Sorry for the delay in posts.  Life got in the way of the boat.  You know who you are ladies.

So I had some time before some family shows up for Vicky's B-day and I got some epoxying done and fibre glassed the rudder.  I could only get the before and after shots.  Didn't want to get epoxy on my phone.

Before.

I put down a tarp so the floor wouldn't get epoxy on it.  The black mat is for boots and it was cheap.  Works great for catching the majority of drips.  On the kitchen peninsula I have my fibre glass and tools all ready to go.  

After

Shazzam.  Just like that it's done.  I put some West System 406 colloidal silica in to thicken up the mix and put that in between the nuts to fill in the gaps between the angled pieces of wood and the hull.  I took the whole thing apart and filled every nook and cranny full of epoxy.  I hate doing touch ups later.  Do it right the first time and it'll last for years.

Here's the rudder sitting upright.  I took two pieces of wood and wrapped them in plastic wrap and put a clamp on it to keep the rudder upright.  The epoxy doesn't stick to the plastic wrap unless there is a wrinkle in it.  I took the wrinkles out first.   Another tip is that vinegar isn't just for your fries.  You can use it to clean up the epoxy while it's still wet.  West system costs a bit, but the benefits are out of this world.

I didn't do the wing yet.  I don't have that much room to work so I can only do a bit at a time.  I'll epoxy it and fibre glass it too so it has a strong hold for when I attach the steering cables.

Here's a bird's eye view of the stern.  I think it looks pretty sexy.

I'm using West System 206 hardener.  It's the slow kind so I can have more time playing around.  It has a 25 minute set time.

That's it for today.  When the rudder is done I'll get the wing done and then just the cables to go.  I know I said I'd be done this weekend, but next weekend is just as good.  

So today started out with a game of risk on-line.  East against Far East.  I lost.  So on to the kayak.

Here I marked out with masking tape what is going where.  The outside ones will be where the steering cable holes will be going through the hull.  The middle one will be a pulley for the up and down cable attached to the rudder.

Here marked with tape are the guides that will guide the up and down cables of the rudder over the hull.

Here is the new and improved version of the rudder system.  Thicker wood makes it stronger and happier.  

Here is practice of how I plan on attaching the steering cables.  It's a grommet.  Just an experiment.  It will probably change.  

No to try and figure out how to cut aircraft cable without the ends splitting like a bad hair day.  

Rudder should be done by this weekend.  Unless something comes up during the week.  The mast base will be the next project.

So there it is in all it's glory.  Some more work to do, but all the hardware is done.  Things I need to do are:

Replace that skinny piece with a thicker one.  With only one screw it likes to spin and isn't that strong.

I readjusted the placement of the circles and here it is.  Ruder, Teflon washer, small circle, big circle then the rest.  This way the aircraft cable doesn't get caught up in anything.

Here's the "rudder holder upper thingy"  The bolts are through it and it's all done.  Hopefully the hardest part of the project.

Here's what it will look like.  Just need to epoxy it all together with the replacement wooden piece and attach all the cables to make it work.  That should be fun in itself.  I will paint it too.  Any suggestions on colours?

No work done tonight.  Went and saw the Avengers.  Best movie ever.  EVER!!!

No pics tonight.  Phone's dying.  Same as last night but the other side.  There are some gaps between, but I don't care.  They're going to be filled with super thick epoxy.  Two more blocks to chisel out to fill the space between the "rudder holder upper thingy" aka "Fred" and the kayak hull.  I can't wait till their done.  I scrapped my knuckle tonight.  It hurt.

I should have taken a picture of this outside, but I was in a little place I like visit called the zone.  I opened the door and put the kayak on the deck to sand it my kitchen wouldn't have red paint everywhere. 

I also made one of the four angle pieces that will hold the "rudder holder upper thingy" to the hull.  That angle took a bit for my mind to get around.  One is done and the mirror on the other side is ready to cut.  I was too tired and didn't want to screw it up.  Tomorrow nights project.

After I came home go-karting last night.   (Which was totally awesome by the way I suggest that everyone try it.)  I played with the pulley system inside the rudder and to my delight it worked, the part that sucked was that the piece of wood at the top is too short.  It's not there, but you will have seen it in earlier posts.  I have to fit a new one in, but I'm making this one stand up higher so it will act as a catch for the rudder while it's in the up position.

Here is the inside of the pulley system with the rudder itself being shown.  I traced the small wheel and the large wheel that can seen in the top down view.  The hole at the bottom is where my 5/32 aircraft cable is going to pass through.  If I tried to terminate the aircraft cable in that small space between the small and large wheel there would have been no room, so I just passed the cable through the hole.  The "S" shape in the cable catches the rudder and spins it around.  I tried it and it works.  Pretty slick.

Bought West system epoxy today with 6 yards of 6oz woven fibre glass.    Other than that not to much was done.  I love West System.  No smell, maybe a little, but nothing a sented candle can't fix, and besides, the ladies love sented candles.

So I made the rudder holder onner thingy out of maple.  I still have to attach it.  That'll be for another night.  I was too tired to tackle that one.

And this is the down position.  You can see in the top pick how the rudder rests on the maple.  So I'm going to make a V piece that will sit on the rudder, by the hinge, to cradle the rudder while its in the up position.  So the rudder won't sit at a 90 degree angle when it's up, but I'll get over that.

It's turning out well and I like that.  Can't wait for sea trials.