From the computer into reality - Patrick Poirier

Well, Patrick's computer design comes out much nicer than mine did. Congratulations for a good job well done!

Patrick built his kayak in his living room. He plotted the sections to scale 1:1 and glued them on 4x4ft baltic birch sheet. That's why you see white paper on section backs.

Patrick has used a small brass hinge to connect the cockpit halves.

The skin is black and yellow PVC coated polyester mesh 16 OZ, 0.5 mm thick bought in a truck tarpaulin maker shop. For 100$ CAN he got all needed fabrics plus a quart of HH-66 vinyl glue.

When Pat has created the DXF the view scale was "1" so normally when you will print on a plotter the scale will be ok. But not all plotters can print that size of paper so to use it you have to divide in four equal parts and separate in four different files. Don't forget that little detail.

On vacation in August 2002 Pat went with his friend in their chalet on the shore of the small lake Dubuc in deep wood on Mont-Valin a chain of mountain in the north of Sagnenay river. He is from Jonquiere, a small city of sagnenay region and brought the kayak with him. First real trial while fishing rainbow trout and being by mosquito's!

Pat's hull design is made of four parts. Separation approx 1-1/2 feet after stem and stern and one separation in the middle.

He removed all the wrinkles with an iron set to medium and a cotton shop towel to avoid sticking. This works as well as with a heat gun.

Based upon my own experience, wooden sections are preferable over aluminum sections because they don't deteriorate so fast (bending, buckling, denting). HDPE is even more versatile, but considerably heavier than wood. All in all, a really good design, especially for the first one you do.

At the left is a pic of a new used hockey bag with all the kayak in it. Like you see on the pic there is a little measurement error but it is the perfect bag.